Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi, Nov. 1: Two central universities in Uttar Pradesh today indicated they were proposing to restart students’ union elections from this academic year.

On Saturday, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi had urged HRD minister Kapil Sibal to take up the matter with authorities of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and Allahabad University as union elections had not been held over the last few years.

AMU vice-chancellor P.K. Abdul Azis today met Sibal and told him the varsity was planning to hold polls in January 2011.

“I told the minister that we can hold elections in the last week of January 2011. We cannot conduct the elections before that since other academic activities are scheduled,” Azis said.

The varsity may issue notification for elections in the second week of January, he said. AMU students demanding union elections have been on strike since October 11.

Rahul had led a delegation of student representatives from AMU and BHU and urged Sibal on Saturday to intervene in the matter. At AMU, the elections were last held in 2007, at Allahabad University in 2004 and in BHU in 1997. They were suspended because of campus violence.

The team told Sibal there was hardly any student participation in varsity welfare issues because union elections were not being held.

Sibal today spoke to BHU vice-chancellor D.P. Singh. Singh is believed to have said the varsity was considering holding elections from this session.