Jadavpur University students held the vice-chancellor, registrar and several other members of the executive council hostage for several hours till late on Friday, demanding that the authorities reject the government's advisory against holding the union elections in February.
The four-month students' agitation at JU that led to the resignation of Abhijit Chakrabarti as VC had started with a similar gherao in September 2014.
On Friday, a large number of students assembled in front of Aurobindo Bhavan, the administrative headquarters of the university, at 4pm and started a sit-in to press for February polls.
They demanded that the authorities immediately issue a notice and announce the election dates. Around 8pm, the students announced that they would continue with their agitation till their demand was met.
The executive council, the highest decision-making body of the university, met at 4pm to discuss the advisory asking the authorities to keep the polls on hold till further notice. The advisory, which reached JU on Thursday, was in response to VC Suranjan Das's letter to the higher education department seeking permission to hold the polls in February.
On November 26, the state government had issued an advisory asking the VCs of all universities to keep union elections in abeyance till further notice.
The executive council decided that two of its members - chancellor's nominee Bimal Roy and pro VC Ashish Swarup Verma - would meet governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Monday. The two would apprise Tripathi, also chancellor of the university, of the students' demand and seek his advice.
The council summoned a delegation of students at the end of the meeting and conveyed the decision to them.
The students opposed the decision and decided to continue with their agitation till the authorities issued a notification announcing that the union polls would be held in February.
"We want the elections to be held in February. The authorities will have to issue a notification immediately, announcing the election dates. We will not gherao anyone but will sit here and keep shouting slogans till our demand is met. If they (VC, registrar and the other council members) want to leave, they can do so. But we won't move," a student said.
Registrar Pradip Kumar Ghosh said he, the VC and the other members of the council would not leave the campus till the agitating students went back home. "We can't leave the students on the campus. This has never been the practice at Jadavpur University," Ghosh said.
VC Das refused to speak on the matter.
Night-long gheraos and protests are not new in JU. In 2013, students had gheraoed then VC Souvik Bhattacharyya for over 50 hours demanding revocation of the punishment meted out to two students for ragging.
In 2010, then VC P.N. Ghosh and some officials had been gheraoed for 52 hours to protest the installation of CCTV cameras on the campus.
In September 2014, several hundred students had held then VC Abhijit Chakrabarti and some other members of the executive council captive for several hours.
The VC and the others left after police assualt on the students.
The assault spawned the " hokkolorob" movement that ended with Chakrabarti's resignation in January last year.
