Chancellor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Monday suggested that JU students should rethink their demand for holding campus polls this month because the interests of lakhs of board examinees was at stake, according to sources.

Bengal governor Tripathi, a lawyer, also advised a students' delegation to challenge the government advisory on campus polls in court if they felt it was illegal, said sources.

JU students had withdrawn their 51-hour gherao of vice-chancellor Suranjan Das on Sunday night after the chancellor agreed to meet them.

A delegation of six office-bearers of the three students' unions in the faculties of engineering, science and arts met Tripathi at Raj Bhavan and sought his intervention so that campus polls are held on time. The pro-VC, Ashish Swarup Verma, and the chancellor's nominee to the varsity's executive council, Bimal Roy, also attended the 30-minute meeting.

The November 26 government advisory keeping the campus polls in abeyance had cited the need for "peace and tranquillity" during board exams as the reason.

After hearing the students' demand, Tripathi reportedly said: "In my understanding, this government is right, because this (conducting the polls) involves law and order issues. It requires police arrangement."

"What is more important? 10,000 JU students or 14 lakh board examinees spread across the state? You are all educated people, you tell me?" the chancellor was quoted as asking the students.

Tripathi reportedly said the government was well within its rights to issue the advisory. "I feel when you hold elections, there is a larger issue of public order and that will impinge on board examinees. I don't think that there is any illegality in the advisory."

When the students asked the chancellor why JU, an autonomous institution, could not hold the poll on its own, Tripathi reportedly replied: "Let the executive council discuss this matter and take a decision. But whatever decision they take on conducting the polls, it should be taken after consulting the government and with its prior approval."

The JU students told the governor that if the elections were not held on time, students' unions would become defunct and there would be no union representation in statutory bodies like the anti-ragging committee and the students' welfare board.

The chancellor pointed out that alternative provisions had been explored in February 2013, when the government had issued an identical advisory after a police officer was shot during filling of nominations in a city college. The elections had been then stayed for a year and the tenure of the unions had been extended by the JU executive council.

The governor also reminded the students that the EC had resolved to continue the tenure of the office bearers. The students had not objected to the resolution then, the governor pointed out. The chancellor also reportedly said the government could not allow only JU to hold elections when there are five more unitary universities in the state.

"There are five more universities which are unitary and therefore doing anything in isolation for one university is not either legally correct or justified", sources quoted the chancellor as saying. The chancellor also struck down the students' demand of his office intervening so that the government advisory could not be implemented.

"But this is my government. I am also the governor and this government runs in my name," Tripathi reportedly said.

Swarnendu Burman, general secretary of engineering students' union Fetsu, said after coming out of Raj Bhavan that the chancellor had decided to take legal opinion on holding campus election on time. "Once he is through with taking legal opinion, he will communicate his view to the vice-chancellor. We will hold a general body meeting on Wednesday to decide on our course of action," said Burman.