Trinamul bags all seats on NBU second campus

Supporters of the Trinamul Chhatra Parishad take out a rally at North
Bengal University in Siliguri on Tuesday. Picture:Kundan Yolmo

TT, Jalpaiguri, Dec. 30: The Trinamul Chhatra Parishad has virtually won uncontested eight seats of representatives of the North Bengal University's student union on the second campus in Jalpaiguri as no other organisation fielded candidates.

Leaders of other students' organisations have alleged that they were kept in dark about the nomination process on the second campus. They have decided to approach the varsity authorities who are conducting the students' union elections to be held on January 9. "Eight seats of students' representatives for the union were allocated for the second campus. The date for collection of nomination forms was December 27, while the date of submission was December 30, both on the main campus and the second campus. As the nominations were submitted today, it was found that only TMCP-backed candidates, one each in the eight seats, have submitted nominations," said a source on the second campus. "Though the results have not yet been declared, it is evident that TMCP has won uncontested in these eight seats."

Abhijit Sinha, the Jalpaiguri district TMCP president, said they had collected 30 nominations against the eight seats. "Out of these, we have submitted eight nominations, one for each seat. We are hopeful that after the election results are announced, we would be able to secure majority and bag the students' union," he said.

Even though there are two campuses of NBU, there will be a single students' union, which will have eight representatives from the second campus. Representatives of other students' organisations however, have alleged that they were kept in dark about the second campus's representatives.

"We had no clue that there would be seats for the students' union polls on the second campus. None of us were informed by the officials who are running the second campus and it was only this afternoon that we learnt about the submission of nominations," Pradip Dey, a state committee member of SFI from Jalpaiguri, said. "We will shortly submit a written complaint to the varsity authorities."

Bapi Goswami, a BJP leader of Jalpaiguri town, spoke in a similar tone.

"On hearing that today was the day for submission of nominations, we rushed to the second campus and were told that the entire process has closed down. Trinamul and its students' front are fearing the polls even in colleges and universities and are trying to grab the students' unions by keeping other organisations in dark. They are using administrative machineries at these institutions to succeed in their strategy," Goswami said.

TMCP leaders, however, have denied the allegations. "There is no question of concealing the process. Media reports have come up on the students' union polls and also, the authorities had issued proper notices. The leaders of these students' organisations lacked information and now, finding that there is no way that they can field candidates, they are crying hoarse and raising baseless allegations," Sinha, the TMCP district president, said.

Meanwhile, on the NBU main campus at Shivmandir, Siliguri, the submission of nominations remained peaceful today. There are 87 seats of students' representatives at NBU of which, nomination forms were submitted for 79 seats for the main campus and the remaining eight from the second campus.