Bhubaneswar: State Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan announced on Monday that the long-awaited Students’ Union elections will be held across the state’s colleges and universities next year. The elections, which are typically conducted in the first week of September, have not been held since 2018.
Minister Harichandan cited the recent change in government as the primary reason for the delay in this year’s elections. “Due to the new government assuming office in June, there was insufficient time to undertake the necessary preparations. This year, colleges will ready themselves, and elections will commence from the next year. We are nearly resolved on this matter,” he informed the press.
The absence of Students’ Union elections over the past six years has been a point of contention among students and political organizations alike. Since 2018, when the elections were last called off due to Cyclone Titli, campuses have witnessed sporadic unrest. In 2017, the last year when elections took place, student unrest led to five universities, including Utkal and Ravenshaw, along with eight colleges, abstaining from voting. The elections were further suspended in 2019 due to campus violence, following a directive from Saswat Mishra, then principal secretary of Higher Education, which advocated for the appointment of student representatives instead of holding elections.
The decision to suspend elections was initially justified by the need to maintain campus tranquility, with the Higher Education Department continuing to appoint student representatives to necessary bodies. However, this approach has been met with growing dissatisfaction, particularly as the COVID-19 pandemic extended the suspension through 2020 and 2021, with no updates to the 2019 directive.
In September 2023, tensions flared up on campuses when the Higher Education Department failed to include student union elections in the common academic calendar for the 2023-24 academic year. Protests erupted at Utkal University, and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the BJP, petitioned for the Orissa High Court to intervene.
With the announcement of the resumption of elections in 2024, students across Odisha are hopeful that their voices will once again be heard through democratic processes on campus. The upcoming elections are expected to reintroduce vibrant student politics into the state’s higher education institutions, providing a platform for students to engage actively in shaping their academic and social environments.