Bhubaneswar, Oct. 16: Attendance in most colleges of the capital has dropped ahead of the approaching Dussehra holidays but that has not deterred aspiring student leaders from canvassing for the October 19 campus elections.

With barely 72 hours to go for the D-day, they are doing all it takes to turn the tide in their favour – distributing snack packets, organising lunches at temples and taking out motorcycle rallies. However, with a spending limit of Rs 5,000 (which candidates hardly adhere to), most of them are relying heavily on door-to-door and SMS campaigns as well as social media tools to appeal for votes.

“When you pay personal visits to fellow students, they take you more seriously. They realise you are much more than a poster,” said Sibabrata, who is running for the post of president at BJB Autonomous College here. He said the voter turnout at BJB is likely to drop by 30 to 40 per cent this year because most students would be busy with Durga Puja celebrations.

Visiting houses might be tedious, but is more convincing, agrees Sanjib Parida, a presidential hopeful at Maharishi College of Natural Law. “I have been visiting 20 houses a day over the past four days. My friends and I are also sending SMS to reach out to as many voters as possible,” the final-year student said.

There are some others, however, who feel that door-to-door campaigning is annoying from the voter’s perspective. “Landing up at somebody’s house is unappealing, especially when you have never spoken to them before the election dates were announced. When you have less time in hand, text messaging and social media are the key campaign tools,” said Monalisa, a second-year student of Kamala Nehru Women’s College, who is running for the post of general secretary.

For tech-savvy candidates, social networking sites such as Facebook, Orkut and, to some extent, Twitter, have emerged as the perfect forum, not just for speed and networking advantages, but also as an interactive tool to discuss issues dogging the colleges.

“I have added nearly 60 per cent of the students of my college on Facebook. Whenever I post my campaign pictures, I tag them to remind them about the polling day,” said a candidate of Ramadevi Women’s Autonomous College.

The aspirants will make a last attempt at wooing voters during the “What I stand for” meeting on October 18. Polling will be held on the next day between 8am and 2pm. The counting of votes would be done that afternoon and results are supposed to be declared by 6pm.

Colleges have made tight security arrangements on their respective campuses to keep trouble-makers at bay. Elections have been cancelled at Utkal University following repeated incidents of student violence.

All for votes

On campus

Distributing food packets, ice creams, chocolates and soft drinks
Organising lunch at temples, sponsoring meals at college canteen and restaurants

Off campus

Door-to-door campaigning
Text messaging
Using social media to reach out to students
Posting updates and pictures of campaign online, tagging potential voters

Mind the dates

Oct 18: What I Stand
For meeting
Oct 19: Polling (8 am to 2 pm), counting of votes and declaration of results (by 6pm)
Oct 20: Oath taking
by elected candidates