PUSU polls put off till further orders after unsavoury incidents

Polls were scheduled for February 28 and Saturday was the day when the names of the candidate for various central panel and councillors’ posts were to be announced to set the stage for campaigning, but things went awry before that

Patna University Students’ Union (PUSU) elections, 2025-26 , which was scheduled on February 28, has even postponed till further orders in view of some “unprecedented incident,” said a Patna University notification issued on Saturday evening.

Students at the Patna University. (Santosh Kumar/HT)

The notification, signed by Dean (Student Welfare) was issued after a high-level meeting with the Vice Chancellor in the wake of an unsavoury incident, in which some students entered a classroom in the Patna Science College and resorted to unruly behaviour with the fellow students as well as the teacher present there.

Some of the students, however, insisted that the election should be held on due date and stopped the car of the VC, as she tried to leave the university late evening. They tried to put pressure for election on February 28. As the situation deteriorated, the Dean (Students Welfare) Yogender Kumar Verma was made to write with pen that the election would be held on February 28 itself. However, there was no notification to the effect till the time of writing this report.

The campus was said to be tense.

Two days ago, a group of students had also unauthorizedly entered the Patna Women’s College, resorted to slogan shouting and violated the model code of conduct by using vehicles and printed posters before the start of the campaigning period.

Taking a stern view of the PWC incident, the Presidential debate had scheduled there had been called off as a warning to students that they would not be allowed to vitiate atmosphere in the name of PUSU election.

“However, the unruly behaviour Arun the Patna Science College with fellow students and teacher was too mich and a unanimous decision was taken to postpone the election with immediate effect. The students need to deserve election and it can not be allowed to be a platform for hooliganism,” said a senior official of PU.

Saturday was the day when the names of the candidate for various central panel and councillors’ posts were to be announced to set the stage for campaigning, but things went awry before that.

“All the candidates had been requested to go through the ‘Code of Conduct, the Rules of Election and Campaigning and the statute issued by thr Raj Bhawan’. The dos and don’ts were clearly laid down in keeping with the recommendations of the Lyngdoh committee to ensure election in a campus-centric, peaceful and healthy atmosphere,” said the official.

This time the election was announced before the end of the one-year stipulated tenure of the PUSU to lay a platform for timely polls in future. The election in 2025 was held after a gap of over two years, while in the past elections remained held up for years. After 1984, PUSU polls could not be held due to fear of violence till 2012 and after a gap of over five years it was held in 2018.