ABVP, Congress Resent Students’ Union Poll Schedule

Bhubaneswar: The Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) have criticized the schedule for the students’ union elections in Odisha announced by the state government on Friday.

According to the notification, there are only working days before the filing of nomination papers which will be held on October 3. From this, it is quite clear that this is a game plan of the ruling BJD only to favour its candidates. However, the ABVP has accepted the challenge to contest the elections,” ABVP national secretary Abhilash Panda told mediapersons here on Saturday.

In his reaction, Students’ Congress leader and NSUI convener Itish Pradhan said they are ready for the elections.

“We were expecting that the state government will fix the schedule for filing of nomination papers either on October 5 or October 7 to give some time for the campaign by the aspiring candidates. Anyway, we welcome the decision of the state government and we have completed preparations for the elections in the colleges and universities,” he added.

According to the notification issued by the Higher Education department, the process for election to the students’ union will be notified on October 1.

Candidates can file their nominations from 9 am to 12 noon on October 3 while the scrutiny of the nominations will be held the same day. The withdrawal of nominations and the list of the valid candidates will be published on October 4.

The ‘What I Stand For’ meeting will be on October 10 while the polling will be held on from 8 am to 2 pm on October 11 and the results declared the same day after counting.

The oath-taking ceremony of the winning candidates will be held on October 12.