NSUI members protest outside minister’s house demanding college polls

Bhubaneswar: Demanding Students' Union elections in colleges and universities of the State, the Congress-backed NSUI demonstrated outside the residence of State Higher Education Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak here on Thursday. The Higher Education department has prepared a common academic calendar for the 2023-24 session, in which the schedule for the Students' Union election was not mentioned.

Protesting against it, NSUI activists, led by their State president Yashir Nawaz, tried to gherao the minister's official residence and allegedly hurled eggs at it. They were later detained by the police.

“The government cancels the Students' Union polls each year in the name of campus violence. But, it is the students' wing of the ruling BJD which creates disturbances on campuses. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is holding the Home portfolio, so it is his duty to maintain law and order in the State,'' said Nawaz.

''If the union elections are held, BJD will be uprooted. So, fearing defeat. the Naveen Patnaik government is not conducting the polls,'' he claimed. If the elections are not held, the NSUI will hold demonstrations across the State, he said.

The RSS-affiliated ABVP and Left-wing AISF are also demanding campus elections. Biju Chhatra Janata Dal president Devi Ranjan Tripathy had earlier said the elections have been put on hold as the Lyngdoh Commission's recommendations are being violated on the campuses by the students.

The college elections have not been held since 2018 due to various reasons, such as campus violence and the pandemic.