Sambalpur, Sept. 17: Tension prevailed on the campus of Sambalpur University following the rejection of candidature of an aspirant to the post of president of the students’ union. A group of irate students closed the gate of the administrative block of the university and staged a demonstration.

They lifted the agitation after discussions were held with the vice-chancellor of the varsity.

Tension erupted when an aspirant for the post of president did not find his name in the final list of candidates.

According to a university source, the aspirant had filed nomination for various posts on September 13. The scrutiny of the nomination papers was scheduled on September 15.

Punyamurti Kristhodas, Subash Barik and Sadhu Charan Khamari had filed nomination papers for the post of president. After the scrutiny, university authorities declared the names of three candidates for the post of the president. The date for withdrawal of nomination was fixed on September 16. Subash Barik withdrew his nomination.

But after the withdrawal, the university published another list that figured the name of only one candidate for the post of president.

It had rejected the candidature of Sadhu Charan Khamari after a complaint from his rival, Punyamurti Khristodas.

Following this incident, a group of students gheraoed the office of the Post-graduate Council yesterday evening. Today, the students closed the gate that leads to the administrative block from 10am and staged a demonstration.

PG Council chairman S.K. Acharya said: “The candidature of Sadhu Charan Khamari was rejected after we received a complaint from the rival group. We rejected Khamari’s candidature as he had a back paper in his semester examination.”

“According to the Lyngdoh Commission’s recommendations, a student is not eligible to contest in the students’ union election if he has back paper. That’s why Khamari’s candidature was rejected,” said Acharya.

“We had complained to the PG Council chairman about Khamari’s back paper. The PG Council chairman rejected his candidature on the basis of our complaint,” said Punyamurti Khristodas.

“The university authorities are supposed to reject nomination papers after the scrutiny. But they did not reject my candidature during scrutiny,” said Khamari.

The students withdrew their agitation after the vice-chancellor invited them for discussion. “The vice-chancellor has assured us that the scrutiny of the nomination forms will be carried out afresh. After this assurance, we withdrew our agitation,” said Khamari.