Patna, March 7: Campaigning for the March 17 election to seven posts in Patna University Teachers’ Association (Puta) has begun from Patna Women’s College.

The polls, being held after three years, would witness a pitched battle between Rai Murari (head of economics department) and P.K. Poddar (dean, students welfare).

Both Murari and Poddar have fielded six candidates each from their groups. Seven posts are up for grabs — that of the president, vice-presidents (two), general secretary, joint secretaries (two) and treasurer. Besides, election of executive committee members would also be held.

Puta general secretary Randhir Kumar Singh said: “Puta has been raising issues such as promotion, wage revision and retirement. Therefore the polls are very important.” For the post of president, there is a contest between Murari and Poddar. For the two posts of vice-presidents, there are four candidates. While Bal Gangadhar Prasad and Israel Raza are contesting from Murari’s team, Prabhakar Jha and Javed Hayat are representing Poddar’s team.

For the post of general secretary, there is a contest between Anil Kumar from Murari’s side and S.B. Lal from Poddar’s side. For the posts of joint secretaries, there are four candidates, Madhu Rani Sinha, Manoj Kumar Sinha, Kumari Rupam and Awadhaesh Kumar. For the post of treasurer, there are two candidates in the fray. Randhir said according to rules, members who have served for two terms cannot contest elections.