Students lock faculty members of Ravenshaw University in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack/ Bhubaneswar, Sept. 23: Several colleges across the state, including Ravenshaw University in Cuttack and Utkal University in the capital, witnessed tense moments after the list of valid candidates for the upcoming students’ union elections on September 29 was announced this evening.

Trouble erupted on the Ravenshaw campus this evening after the nominations filed by two candidates were rejected. While one was disqualified for having a back paper, the other was rejected on the ground that he had contested the elections last year. The duo and their friends locked seven lecturers in the commerce block for an hour, demanding their nominations to be reconsidered. The issue was resolved after the authorities explained the reasons for rejecting their candidature.

At Utkal University, presidential candidate Jyoti Ranjan Prusty approached university authorities, questioning the candidature of his opponent Tanmay Swain.

He alleged that Tanmay’s nomination has been declared valid despite a criminal record against him. However, chairman of the post-graduate council, P.K. Sarkar said the scrutiny committee constituted by the university had verified that Tanmay did not have criminal antecedents.

A group of students of the Prannath College, Khurda, went on a rampage after the candidature of a presidential aspirant was cancelled today during scrutiny of nomination papers.

The aspirant and his friends broke classroom furniture, damaged vehicles and smashed the rear window of a car parked on the campus.

College authorities called in the police after the students threatened to continue with the violence and hamper classes. “We called a staff council meeting and it was decided that elections would not be called off midway,” said principal M.K. Mohanty.

Election hopefuls at the Netaji Subhas Memorial City College, Cuttack, today staged a demonstration on the campus alleging that their nomination has been rejected due to a “conspiracy hatched by the college authorities”. Yesterday, two students were injured in a violent clash between two student groups shortly after the filing of the nominations for various posts for students’ union election.

College authorities said 12 of 15 nominations were rejected as candidates failed to meet the prescribed eligibility criteria.

Tension prevailed on the Angul Government Autonomous College campus this morning over the rejection of nomination papers of all the three presidential candidates for the upcoming college union elections. The trio was disqualified as their attendance rate was below 75 per cent, which is a pre-requisite for contesting campus polls.

Hundreds of irate students locked the college gate, burnt tyres and held demonstrations against the college authorities.

They said regular classes were not being held due to the acute shortage of teachers, which, in turn, affected their attendance. “Two platoons of police force have been deployed on the campus. We will cancel elections if violence persists,” said principal S.D. Das.