Patna: The stage is set for Saturday, voting day for the Patna University students' union polls.
A day before the elections, on Friday, senior varsity officials, including chief returning officer for the election P.K. Poddar, dean students' welfare N.K. Jha, registrar Rabindra Kumar and other officials visited the colleges and the postgraduate departments where polling booths have been set up.
The officials also visited Patna Science College where the votes will be counted. Around 19,800 students from different colleges and postgraduate departments will vote on Saturday to elect 28 candidates, including five office-bearers (central panel members) and 23 council members.
A total of 154 candidates are contesting the elections for the 28 posts. Of them, 67 candidates are fighting for the central panel posts - president, vice-president, general secretary, joint secretary and treasurer. The remaining 23 posts are for council members for which 87 candidates are in the fray.
The number of council members at a college and a department will be decided on student strength.
For example, Patna Women's College will send four council members as the college has the highest student strength in the varsity, followed by Magadh Mahila College, which will have three council members.
BN Colllege, Patna Science College and Patna College will have two council members each.
"The varsity has made elaborate arrangements for the election," dean Jha said. "Around 46 booths at 10 colleges have been created. In 14 polling stations, a professor will be appointed as observer. The observers will be assisted by two assistant professors. The polling will start at 8am and will continue till 2pm. The counting of votes will start at 3.30pm while the results will be declared by late night."
The district administration, too, has made preparations for the election.
Patna police for the past few days have been conducting raids at various hostels of the university. Around 25 personnel along with senior police officers will be deployed at each polling station.
"We are conducting raids at regular intervals at all PU hostels," said Pirbhore police station house officer Gulam Sarwar. "There will be frisking at all polling booths. Patna SP (Central) D. Amarkesh has convened a meeting in the evening where he will issue necessary guidelines."
The PU students' union poll is being held after a gap of more than five years.
The last election was held in December 2012 - after a gap of three decades - during the tenure of vice-chancellor Shambu Nath Singh.
The first students' union election at Patna University was held in 1959 when Shailesh Chandra Mishra was elected as president. Since 1959, elections were held at regular intervals. In 1973, Lalu Prasad was elected president of the students' union, while Sushil Kumar Modi and Ravi Shankar Prasad were elected general secretary and assistant general secretary respectively. Lalu had contested on a Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha ticket, while Modi and Ravi Shankar had contested on Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parisad tickets.
Student movements and promulgation of Emergency ensured there was no election next term. In 1978, Ashwani Choubey was elected president. The last regular election was held in 1980, in which Shambhu Sharma and Ranbir Nandan were elected president and general secretary respectively.
