SPOT THE ODD ONE OUT: A student of Asutosh College makes her way through a ring of police personnel during the union election on Friday and (below) an SFI supporter rejoices after the results were announced. (Pradip Sanyal)

A city college that had become a cauldron of ugly student politics witnessed a peaceful union election on Friday under the glare of a police contingent billed as the biggest for a campus poll.

Going by the bandobast — two police officers of the rank of deputy commissioner, four assistant commissioners, five officers-in-charge, five inspectors, 40 sub-inspectors, 200-plus constables and a contingent of the Rapid Action Force — a passer-by could have mistaken the election at Asutosh College as a dress rehearsal for the bigger political battle ahead.

Section 144 of the CrPC was also clamped in the area lest a stray spark trigger a rerun of the campus violence that had claimed a life and an eye on either side of the river on December 16.

Asutosh College is a “strategic” academic institution for the ruling Left Front and Trinamul Congress, and it showed in the way both parties gave it their all over the past month.

That the college is less than a 10-minute sprint from Mamata Banerjee’s Harish Chatterjee Street home — the Students’ Federation of India had tried to storm Mamata’s house on December 16 to protest that day’s incidents — was another reason for the cops to keep things tight.

“We didn’t want to take chances and so the arrangements were elaborate,” said a senior police officer, admitting that even the tumultuous seventies didn’t see a college being ringed by cops for a poll.

For the cops on duty, the brief from Lalbazar was short and stern — keep outsiders out. For the entire duration of the poll, the only “outsiders” were the cops themselves.

The SFI won 19 of the 20 seats at stake, which its supporters said was a fitting response to Trinamul’s alleged taunt about the CPM’s student wing being populated by “tiny creatures”. Two seats weren’t contested because of a stay order issued by a city court in response to a petition filed by a Trinamul supporter.

Although the SFI maintained its grip on Asutosh, its dominance in college elections across Bengal is no longer taken for granted. Until last year, the student unions of more than 85 per cent of the 400-odd colleges in the state were under the SFI’s control.

The Trinamul Congress Chhatra Parishad has since emerged as a potent force, triggering frequent clashes of the kind that claimed SFI activist Swapan Koley’s life in Andul, Howrah, and left Asutosh College student Souvik Hazra without vision in one eye last month.

The police, who took most of the blame for the two incidents on December 16, said the level of security at Asutosh College on Friday could become the norm for college elections.

“We have learnt our lessons and are determined to ensure that student elections are held peacefully everywhere,” said an officer standing amidst the banners and buntings outside the college gate.

A teacher at Asutosh College confirmed that the entire electoral process went off without a hitch. “Not a single complaint was lodged about outsiders from any of the two rival political camps even attempting to enter the campus,” he said.

Nearly 2,300 out of the 4,000-odd students voted. Stepping out of the campus later, many said that they were glad the police were out in full force.

“We are happy that the administration has deployed such a large contingent of cops. Today’s peaceful election has proved that where there’s a will, there’s a way,” a second-year student said.

This is the second instance of strong official action on campuses paying dividends in the past couple of months. Students of the engineering faculty of Jadavpur University were forced to call off a prolonged academic boycott last month after the authorities took a stand not to consider their demand for talks until they returned to the classrooms.

The students had also boycotted the entire semester exams and demanded that tests be held afresh.