The Trinamul Congress has opened a unit at Jadavpur University within days of winning the battle for Writers’ and is planning to make its debut at the Bengal Engineering and Science University, too.

The fledgling unit of the Trinamul Chhatra Parishad at Jadavpur University’s engineering faculty has signed up 225 students and will launch a membership drive among the 5,000-odd students in the 14 departments of the faculty.

“We wrote to the university authorities on May 31, informing them about the formation of a Trinamul Chhatra Parishad unit in the engineering faculty. The letter was signed by 225 students. We are confident our organisation will grow,” said Timir Baran Roy, the president of the Trinamul Chhatra Parishad unit at the university.

Shanku Deb Panda, the working president of the state Trinamul Chhatra Parishad, said the party would launch a unit at the Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, within a month.

Pro-Trinamul students on the Jadavpur campus used to rally for one or other of the several groups opposed to the CPM-backed Students’ Federation of India, such as the Democratic Students’ Front, All India Students’ Association and the United Students’ Democratic Front.

Student politics was not a priority in the Trinamul came even three years ago. But the party’s successive electoral victory since the 2008 panchayat polls had prompted the leaders to turn their focus on campuses across the state.

A Trinamul unit was launched at Presidency College in November 2009, six months after the party won 19 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.

The victory in the Assembly elections encouraged the party to make its presence felt at Jadavpur University, too.

“JU and Presidency attract the best students. We are looking for good leaders from these institutions,” said Baishwanor Chatterjee, the chairman of the state unit of the Trinamul Chhatra Parishad.

Party insiders said the engineering faculty had been chosen as the launch pad as it had traditionally been an anti-CPM bastion. The Democratic Students’ Front (DSF) has been winning the student union elections in the faculty since 1977.

The Trinamul unit will put up candidates in the mess committee elections in all hostels in July. “The results will help us chalk out an expansion plan on the campus,” said Roy.

The party also plans to fight for one of the two students’ representative seats in the executive council, the highest decision-making body of the university.

Leaders of the unit said their goal was to unite all anti-CPM forces under their umbrella but the DSF did not seem too keen to join forces with Trinamul.

“We have heard that Trinamul has launched its unit. We have an identity of our own and we don’t think Trinamul’s presence will pose any challenge to us,” said Prasun Chakraborty, a DSF leader and chairperson of the students’ union in the engineering faculty.