Hyderabad: The University of Hyderabad is gearing up for students’ union elections. Unlike in the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), where polls are a controversial issue due to the opposition of students to the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations, the elections are relatively smooth and uncomplicated in UoH. BV Sharma, Dean of Students Welfare, said student organisations in the university have been notified and advised to dissolve the current student committee and elect a new election commission on September 25. The elected members of the commission will oversee the student elections.
“The general body meeting is slated to be held at 5 pm Tuesday, where the student committee will submit its annual report. It will contain a summary of what they did in the past year. Also we will try to hold elections before the bio-diversity conference begins, or at least before October 5,” explained Sharma. He confirmed that the recommendations of the JM Lyngdoh Committee will be followed in the upcoming elections.
Student organisations on the campus are looking to make the most of the anti-incumbency feeling amongst students against the current alliance of the Students Federation of India (SFI) and the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) which have been winning for the last two years. “This time around there is a huge anti-incumbency feeling in the university, and the inability to address various problems faced by students also leaves a big vacuum to be occupied,” said Susheel Kumar, an ABVP member. He claimed that cracks in the alliance may also result in SFI-ASA losing power. “Groundwork for the elections has already been initiated. We will start campaigning once the date is out after the election commission is formed,” he said.
T Prashanth, president, students union, ASA brushed aside comments of a friction with the SFI. “There are no differences, and we are not divided. But a decision has to be taken on whether the two organisations will fight together in the elections,” he said. On anti-incumbencey, he explained that there was nothing of that sort, as all the problems faced by students had been addressed, and that a majority of the issues were solved. “In fact we successfully resisted the fee hike in the university, and other things have also been sorted out,” he pointed out.
This time around smaller organisations in the university may also give the stronger student bodies a run for their money, as some have of them have decided to contest the elections together. “The Telangana Students Association (TSA), Bahujan Students Front (BSF), Tribal Students Forum (TSF) and Dalit Students Union (DSU) will contest together in this election,” confirmed Upender Gundala, Convenor, TSA.
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