Maharishi College of Natural Law. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 21: The students’ union election at the Maharishi College of Natural Law here has been cancelled for the second time in a row. Violence erupted on the campus on Friday following a clash between two groups of students over upcoming the elections, in which six were injured.

“We called a staff council meeting on Saturday after it had been established that it was indeed pre-poll violence. It was unanimously agreed that we would not go ahead with the college elections. We don’t want to take any chances since these incidents might recur,” said Madan Mohan Sahu, principal of Maharishi College of Natural Law, adding that the incident had no further impact on the academic atmosphere of the college.

Last year, the students’ union election at this law college had been “provisionally closed”. All the 43 nominations filed by aspirants were declared invalid, mostly because they did not have 75 per cent attendance, which is compulsory to contest elections. One of them was over age (candidate has to be between 17 and 22 years) and another not academically fit (the candidate should not have any academic arrears in the year of contesting election).

Sahu said he hoped there would not be resentment among the students following the cancellation of elections. “We took the decision on Saturday and classes would reopen on Tuesday. But, I don’t think students would challenge our decision. It is in their interest,” he said.

He said only a handful (of students) are interested in elections. “Majority of the students and their parents are not in favour. We often receive requests from guardians asking us to do away with the college election system,” Sahu said.

Another incident of violence was reported from the BJB (Autonomous) College on August 19. Two groups of students had clashed on the campus, but none was injured. Principal Dusmanta Sahu said: “We might call off the elections if such incidents occur again,” he said.