Students of Cotton College cast their votes on Monday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Sept. 15: “Boring” is the Cotton College verdict.

Half of the Cottonians stayed away from the exercise to elect new office-bearers of Cotton College Union Society (CCUS) today.

They said the election was “boring”, as there was no contest for the post of general secretary.

The general secretary of the students’ union had been declared elected uncontested on Wednesday, for the first time in the 107-year-old history of the college.

The post went to Jayanta Kalita, a second-year student of the three-year degree course in Science.

Today, the election was held for four posts only — the vice-president, the assistant general secretary, the editor of Cottonian and the secretary of general sports.

Only 1,950 Cottonians, most of whom are boarders, exercised their franchise to elect the four office-bearers.

Bhaben Kalita, the head of geography department and the election officer, said the number of electorates was 3,941 and nearly 50 per cent of Cottonians had exercised their franchise.

Debabrat Taid, a post-graduate geography student, was elected to the post of vice-president. Taid defeated his rival Lakhyajit Bhuyan by 74 votes.

After many years, a girl, Gauri Bokalial, was elected to the post of assistant general secretary. She defeated Manab Pratim Medhi.

Jahnu Bhardawaj was elected the editor of Cottonian while Raju Ram Boro was elected the secretary of general sports.

“There was no charm and excitement in this year’s election after the most sought after post of general secretary went uncontested. Besides, no contest was held for the posts of secretaries for debating and symposium, social service, music section, cricket, minor games, rowing, swimming and athletics, boys common room and ladies common room. For me, the college election means a tough contest, mega electioneering and tension on the college campus. All these were missing this time,” Diganta Bordoloi, a Cottonian, said.

A senior teacher of the college also said the election was dull as many posts of the CCUS went uncontested.

He said the college had witnessed big battles over the years for the post of general secretary. “The post has been held by many prominent and influential personalities of Assam, including health and family welfare minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, power minister Pradyut Bordoloi and Guwahati MP Kirip Chaliha. So one can imagine the nature of fight associated with the post,” he added.

Some Cottonians preferred to remain indoors because of the heat.

“Since the election was held for only four posts of the CCUS, I did not make the effort to go to college to cast votes in this blazing heat,” Gauri, another Cottonian, said.