Bhubaneswar, Sept. 27: Barely 24 hours after the attack on a presidential candidate at Utkal University, two motorcycle-borne youths hurled a bomb at the residence of the varsity’s vice-chancellor (VC) at Gajapati Nagar late last night. No one was injured in the attack.

Family members of the VC, Prashant Kumar Sahu, were terrified following the incident. Security has been beefed up around his residence and on the university campus as well.

Eyewitnesses said two motorcycle-borne youths came near the house and hurled a bomb at the VC’s residence.

Sahu said that around 11 pm his family was getting ready to go to sleep, when they heard a sound.

“I was in bed. Hearing the sound I woke up. We had not suspected it to be the sound of a bomb blast. Our neighbours said that a bomb was hurled at our house,” said Sahu, adding that he immediately informed Saheed Nagar police.

The Saheed Nagar police, along with senior officials, including deputy commissioner of police Nitinjeet Singh, rushed to the spot and seized the splinters of the bomb, which had hit the outside wall of the house.

Sahu said that he suspected the attack on his residence was targetted to affect the students’ elections, which was scheduled to be held on September 29. However, he said that this incident would not affect the polls.

“The students’ poll will be held as per the schedule. If the culprits have targeted me to stop elections, they have not succeeded in their attempt,” he added.

The police said that the circumstances indicated that the bombing was to hamper the election process. “Our target is to cooperate with the university authorities in successfully carrying out elections. Besides, we have launched a manhunt to arrest the culprits who are involved in the incident,” said a senior police officer, adding that police have been deployed around the VC’s house.

At the same time, two platoons of police force have been deployed on the university campus along with the university’s own security staff.

Candidates contesting the election criticised the act. One candidate, Tanmay Swain, alleged that it might be the act of his rivals who had been trying hard to stop the election on the campus.

Elections will be held after two years in the university. However, his rival Jyoti Ranjan Prusty, who was injured in the previous night’s clash on the campus said that the police should investigate the matter and book the culprits involved. Sources said that while one group on the campus was well ahead of their rivals, the latter had been trying hard to win the elections.

As the university authorities were hell bent on conducting the election on the campus, the VC had been targeted by this group to terrorise him, said a source.