Campaigning at the city’s girls’ colleges has been largely subdued with limited visible activity at Post Graduate Government College for Girls (PGGCG), Sector 42, MCM DAV College for Women, Sector 36, Guru Gobind Singh College for Women, Sector 26, and Dev Samaj College for Women, Sector 45.
At PGGCG-11, the only girls’ college in the city with an active presence of student parties, students say restrictions on campaigning have made it difficult to reach voters. Former PGGCG-11 students’ council president Pooja Kashyap said most issues raised by students were campus-level concerns, including clean drinking water in coolers, hostel gate timings, extended library hours and network problems in hostels. At PGGCG-42, an MA student, who did not wish to be named, said, “I haven’t seen any election activity in the college or heard of any candidate contesting. At MCM DAV College for Women, Sector 36, students are participating in the election process despite the absence of a formal party system.
In the other colleges, students are contesting independently. There are no student parties in our college and there is not much craze for elections in general.
Shyam said her panel was raising issues faced by hostellers, including outing days, hostel timings and food hygiene, but added that day scholars were not allowed to campaign inside hostels. Former general secretary Pranat Setia said genuine issues concerning students and hostellers were being raised, while the students’ council was also responsible for organising the annual fest. “Students staying away from parties is, in a way, beneficial as the focus remains on issues rather than groupism,” he said.
