Senate poll row: Farm leader Tikait backs protesters at PU

In Chandigarh to address a rally, farm leader Rakesh Tikait also reached Panjab University to extend his support to the ongoing protest over the senate elections

In Chandigarh to address a rally, farm leader Rakesh Tikait also reached Panjab University to extend his support to the ongoing protest over the senate elections.

Farm leader Rakesh Tikait was in Chandigarh for a rally on Friday. (Keshav Singh/HT)

Student bodies, former senators and a few candidates have been protesting at the PU campus for the past 14 days over the delay in conducting polls for the registered graduate constituency of the senate.

Speaking at the protest site outside the vice-chancellor’s office, Tikait said: “The decision to defer these elections is unconstitutional. The government is trying to suppress democracy by not conducting elections, and they will promote their own candidates to upset the democratically elected senate.”

Tikait assured the protesters that the issue will be taken up in the next meeting of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha. Ludhiana MLA Simarjit Singh Bains, who was accompanying Tikait, also promised to take up the matter in the next session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.

The polling for the registered graduate constituency, from which 15 members are elected, was originally scheduled on August 18. The varsity postponed it, citing non-availability of required polling booths in Punjab and Haryana. A couple of days ago, the varsity claimed it is ready to hold the polling on third or fourth Sunday of September depending upon the response from Delhi and Uttarakhand.