Bengal: Govt plans student body poll rule amendment, 55% reservation proposed for female students

The state government is planning to amend the rules for conducting student union elections, an annual event at universities and colleges that has not been held in the state for last eight years.

 

One of the new changes which the state is likely to introduce is to have minimum 55 per cent of the seats reserved for women, sources in the state higher education department said. In Bengal the student polls were conducted  in 2017 for the last time.

 

Senior officials in the state higher education department said a process has started by the government to introduce minimum 55 percent reservation of women candidates in the student polls which is an indication that the polls are likely to be held soon.

 

The proposed amendment is in tune with a proposal of Abhishek Banerjee, All India Trinamool Congress general secretary who had said that minimum 55 percent reservation of women candidates in student bodies is necessary when he addressed a meeting of Trinamul Congress Chhatra Parishad, the student wing of TMC last year.

 

Another significant amendment that has been proposed is to introduce direct election of candidates in posts like presidents and general secretaries of the student bodies in all institutions.

 

In the existing system universities and colleges elects candidates in posts like general secretary and president following two methods.

In most universities and colleges the main election is held to elect class representatives. The presidents and general secretaries are selected from elected class representatives (CR) of the party that has the highest number of CRs. In the other method unitary universities like Jadavpur and Presidency which do not have affiliated colleges, general secretaries and presidents are elected directly along with the class representatives.

 

The proposed changes in the election rules are now being examined by the law cell of the higher education department, an official said.

” The student wing of some political parties are continuously inquiring about the student polls which have not been held for a long time. The government is likely to take a decision in this regard after examining the proposals on amending the election rules,” a source in the department said.

 

The Trinamool Congress has swept in most elections including panchayat, civic bodies, Assembly and Lok Sabha.  Despite the ruling party’s victory in almost every poll, the government has avoided holding the student union elections as a political strategy, according to a political observer.

Prominent political leaders like chief minister Mamata Banerjee, former Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Biman Bose Left Front chairman started their political career through campus politics.

 

The Mamata Banerjee government had been subjected to sharp criticisms from student wings of Opposition parties like CPM, Congress and BJP for not holding the student polls that deprived many students from pursuing a political career through participating in campus politics.

 

Before 2017 incidents of campus violence would would get reported from several colleges and universities during every campus poll which would mostly trigger by infighting within TMC Chhatra Parishad over control of unions and student funds.

 

According to the political observer, such incidents of campus violence left the state government worried about creating a negative impression on ordinary people which would subsequently have an effect in  the results of general elections.