In the final list of candidates released on Tuesday for the student council elections—scheduled for August 31 across eight colleges in Chandigarh—the number of contestants dropped significantly to 76 from the provisional list of 253. The list shows that 19 candidates are contesting the presidential post at their respective institutions.
The usual momentum seen before elections was missing this time. How is it that, for the second consecutive year, nearly all candidates are being rejected only in our college? On nomination day, we protested against these unfair rejections, but we achieved no positive outcome. At Dev Samaj College for Women, elections will take place for two posts—vice president and joint secretary—with two contenders running for each position.
Overall, 76 candidates are running for various council positions, compared to 110 candidates across nine colleges in last year’ s election. Every year, students’ council elections take place in 11 colleges, each having a president, vice president, general secretary, and joint secretary post. Last year, elections were also cancelled at GCCBA-50 after 24 out of 26 candidates were disqualified for low attendance. Meanwhile, at the Post Graduate Government College, Sector 46, voting will only be held for the general secretary post, which also has two contenders.
We received minimal nominations, and one or two were rejected due to attendance shortages. Oddly, this year as well, no election will take place at the Government College of Commerce and Business Administration (GCCBA-50), as 14 out of 18 candidates were found ineligible to contest due to attendance shortages. I am a third-year B.Com student who regularly attends classes, yet I was rejected due to an attendance shortage. Because our internal assessments are given by the faculty, no student is going to openly challenge the authorities.
The principal of MCM DAV College for Women, Neena Sharma, said, “We were anticipating a good election in our college, but the early announcement of dates may not have given students enough time to prepare. One of the four students who filed a nomination for the presidential post said, “The college authorities want to wipe student council elections off the campus.
