Univ admin to decide on Patna University Student Union polls today

Patna University may decide on student union elections today after a postponement due to violence; students apologize and seek no legal action.

The Patna University administration is likely to decide on holding the student union election today after the polls were postponed following some unsavoury developments on the campus.

Some students tried to block the path of VC’s car on Saturday. (HT Photo)

An order has been issued to book students for assaulting a teacher. The students late on Sunday tendered apology and requested that no case should be filed against them.

The polls were scheduled for February 28 and the electioneering was to begin from Saturday evening, but the administration notified that the polls were being withheld till the next order. Saturday was the day when the candidates were to be finalised for the polls after scrutiny, but the list could not be released.

The students were so incensed by the postponement that they first tried to stop the car of the vice-chancellor and then created ruckus in the university campus. Later, they forced the Dean (Students Welfare) to write that election would be held as per scheduled. It, however, remained merely an order written under duress, as there was no official notification.

A senior official of the PU said that in the light of the developments, the prospective candidates would be called to discuss the prospect of holding election as per schedule, as it would be with a reduced campaigning window of just three days in the event it gets the nod.

“The campaigning hitherto is illegal as there is no official announcement of candidates after scrutiny. The candidates will be required to give an undertaking that they would adhere to the model code of conduct and there would be no repeat of any ugly incident, like the one that happened in Patna Women’s College, where students entered unauthorisedly, and the Patna Science a college, where a group of students assaulted the a teacher,” he added.

Taking a stern view of the assault incident, the senior official said the VC has directed the proctor to lodge an FIR. PU Teachers’ Association has also called a meeting of its executive committee on Monday and would decide future course of action.

On the other hand, ABVP state organising secretary Dinesh Kumar said that whatever happened was wrong and it was for the PU administration to get the matter examined and take action, but the university authorities were themselves to blame for diluting their own regulations and statute approved by the Chancellor to accommodate ineligible candidates.

“We backed the rules framed for election by PU in keeping the Raj Bhawan statute, which mandates a five-year registration cap from the date of first admission for students desiring to contest. We are all for it. But how could the candidates facing FIR and beyond age limit or registration limit get into reckoning. We have also written about it to the Lok Bhawan as well as the PU VC,” he added.

This is not the first time that Patna University has made headlines for wrong reasons, as it has frequently witnessed ugly incidents and police raids on its hostels, which are often closed for security reasons for long periods.

Not surprisingly, the PUSU election is always a difficult proposition and it has often been held erratically due to security concerns. The election in 2025 was held after a gap of over two years. In the past elections remained held up for years, as the authorities developed cold feet.

After 1984, PUSU polls could not be held due to fear of violence till 2012, but it took another five years to hold the next election in 2018. Though the authorities did try to make it a regular feature thereafter, the rapidly vitiating atmosphere on the campus prevented them from going ahead.

What is more surprising is that as the drama unfolded late evening and a group of students kept the university authorities, including a woman vice-chancellor, hostage for hours barely half km from the Pirbahore police station, the administration remained a mute spectator as the students dictated terms.

PU is India’s seventh oldest university with an illustrious past and it is located in the state capital where both the office of the Governor, who is the Chancellor, and the department of education function.

“The essence of students’ election is to keep it students and campus-centric, as the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations makes it clear, but it has developed rapid degeneration and the fact is that good students mostly try to keep away from it. If the election results in assault on a teacher and hooliganism on the campus of a girls’ college, there is no point holding it with blatant violation of model code, as it would only encourage wrong-doers,” said a senior teacher, who did not want to be quoted.

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