As SFI lapped up 39 of the 71 seats, the alliance of Independent Consolidation (IC) and DSO won 29 seats (IC won 27) while first timer Trinamool Chatra Parishad (TCP) won three seats. Last year, SFI had won 38 seats while the IC had won the remaining 34.

An elated SFI unit president Sushanta Ghosh said: “We dedicate the victory to our comrades and Jyoti Basu. Presidency College has once again been successful in resisting the change.”

While there had been talks of a possible IC-TCP alliance, the two parties contested separately with IC fielding candidates on all 71 seats while TCP contesting on 12. DSO had filed nominations for 10 seats.

Bibashawn Basu, an IC supporter, said: “We are an independent party and the TCP has a mother organisation. With the college becoming autonomous, there is a possibility of a fee hike which we will oppose. But the TCP cannot support our stand as the mother party has an alliance with the Congress at the Centre. The DSO, however, has always stood by us.”

After the elections, the IC winners were escorted out of campus in three police vans with fears of an SFI retaliation.

“They (CPM) see this as a prestige election before the state elections next year. But since 1989, they have won the elections only four times,” said Basu.

The IC candidates and supporters, meanwhile, accused the CPM party cadres of intimidating and threatening students to vote in favour of the SFI. Basu said that more than 100 of their voters had been intimidated by the party cadres.

“It is easier to intimidate students and candidates in Constituency Representative (CR) elections unlike in the general elections when the entire college votes. In the only general election to the post girls’ common room in the college, our candidate won. This shows what students really want,” said Basu.

Winds of change in Scottish College too

The SFI retained its hold over Scottish College winning 33 of the 37 seats that went to polls this year. Three seats went to Democratic Independent Student Unit (DISU) while the result of one seat remained disputed with college students demanding a re-election.

“People have been talking about winds of change in the city and that we will all lose in the coming 2011 election, but the election result just showed that we are still strong here,” said a former student and an SFI supporter of the college.