The demand for holding students' union election at Patna University (PU) has gained momentum after new vice-chancellor (VC) Rash Bihari Prasad Singh said on Tuesday that he was keen on holding elections.

The last such election was held in 2012, and before that it was held in 1984.

A delegation of student leaders associated with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) met the VC on Wednesday, demanding the election at the soonest.

They are not the only ones who have got their hopes up.

"We have many expectations from Rash Bihari Prasad Singh who is serious in holding the students union election," said Sushil Kumar, state secretary of the All India Students Federation (AISF).

"As Singh has a long association with Patna University having been a student, teacher, principal and now VC, he knows the students' problems."

The AISF, Sushil said, also wants improvement in academic activities at the varsity, round-the-clock functioning of the Central Library, setting up of gender sensitisation cells and strengthening infrastructure at colleges under PU.

Pappu Verma, state treasurer of the RSS student wing ABVP, echoed Sushil, saying: "We are hopeful that VC Singh will initiate steps to hold the election."

The ABVP had won the last students' union election held in 2012 with Ashish Sinha elected as the Patna University Students' Union president.

VC Singh reiterated his keenness on Thursday: "I am very much interested in holding students' union election so that there will be a student representative who can take up the students' cause; it is not possible for any VC to listen to every student's problem."

Most of Bihar's present crop of politicians such as Lalu Prasad, Sushil Modi and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad all rose from PU student bodies. Many of them cut their teeth in politics during the JP movement in the '70s.