Winning candidate Swatipriya Das with her supporters outside Ramadevi Women’s (Autonomous) College in Bhubaneswar on Monday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 29: The BJD-backed candidates have won the Utkal University students union after a gap of 14 years with campus polls across the state passing off peacefully barring stray incidents of violence.

Despite restrictions imposed by the Lyngdoh Commission, major political parties in the state extended tacit support to candidates.

It was celebration time for the BJD at Utkal University with candidates backed by the party trouncing their Congress rivals on major posts. Rajeshraj Swain was elected president of the varsity, while Suryakanta Sahoo was elected secretary albeit with thin margins of 136 and 148 votes, respectively.

Former Congress students’ union president Chinmoy Sahoo and two student Congress leaders had recently joined the BJD.

“As many as 1,451 (67 per cent) students out of the total 2,156 cast their votes. The polls went off peacefully without any untoward incident,” said G.K. Panda, chairman of postgraduate council of the varsity, who headed the election committee.

A special committee was formed to conduct the students’ union polls that were being held after two years. The elections had been cancelled twice following violence.

The BJP-backed Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) won the president’s post in the students’ union elections at University Law College. Ajit Kumar Parida defeated Biju Chhatra Janata Dal candidate Rakesh by a slender margin of nine votes. Abhilash Mohanty was declared general secretary uncontested.

At Ramadevi Women’s College, Swastipriya Dasnayak was declared president, while Saroj Kumar Jena is her counterpart at Maharshi College of Natural Law.

The authorities of the BJB Autonomous College lifted the sine die today. The college authorities had declared sine die following a students’ clash on the campus during the filing of nominations for the students’ union elections. The students will have regular classes after the Puja vacation, the authorities said.

At Cuttack’s Ravenshaw University, Sthitaprajna Das was elected president, while Pramod Pati becomes general secretary. “I am extremely happy to have won. I will work for all-round development of the students in the university,” said Das.

The polls in other colleges of the city were also peaceful. Over six platoons of police force were deployed at various colleges for the voting today. Pravat Roul has been elected as president at Christ College, while Chandan Patnaik won the president’s post at Stewart Science College and Itishree Mohapatra in Emarti Devi Women’s College.

Although the polling went peacefully in most places, tension erupted following a clash between supporters of two groups at Fakir Mohan College in Balasore. The cops brought the situation under control.

The police had to resort to a mild baton charge at Anandpur College in Keonjhar to control the crowd. Tension was also reported at the Bhadrak College. The winning candidates will take oath at a special meeting to be held tomorrow following which the college will be closed for the puja holidays.

At Berhampur University, Dipak Pradhan was elected the president and Purnendu Priyatosh is the general secretary. At the Sashi Bhusan Rath Women’s College, Berhampur, Pravasini Sahu was elected as president while Ashalata Sahu was elected general secretary. At Khallikote Autonomous College, Berhampur, Durga Prasad Das was elected president and Abinash Behera the general secretary.

At Sambalpur University, Avinash Patel was elected president and Saroj Kumbhar Souri Narayana Sahu was elected general secretary. At Gangadhar Meher College, Milan Kumar Hota becomes president and Debanand Nayak the general secretary.

In Rourkela, Rohit Mishra and Rohit Kujur were elected as president and general secretary at Government Autonomous College. At Ispat Autonomous College, Tapas Kumar Panda and Amit Tewari were elected president and general secretary respectively. At SG Women’s College, voting was conducted only for the post of general secretary and joint general secretary, wherein Payal Das and Jyotshna emerged triumphant.