This year’s political battle will feature the ruling SFI and three Opposition parties — Independent’s Consolidation (IC), AIDSO and TMCP. Till date, AIDSO, the student wing of SUCI, which has a small presence in the college, supported the IC.

A few months ago, TMCP opened its unit in the college and is already being considered as a hotbed for student politics.

At this stage, the possibility of a coalition between the Opposition parties seem to be ruled out as all the three parties have different ideologies and a common ground is hard to be achieved. This certainly will divide the anti-SFI votes in the upcoming polls.

Sankhu Deb Panda, TMCP president, said: “The final decision on any coalition will be taken by our leader Mamata

Banerjee, as elections at Presidency College is a sensitive issue with larger political significance.”

“We will stand by those with whom we can and have a coalition in the state and will not compromise on our ideology,” added Panda.

“We are confident of winning the elections on our own. We have had an understanding with AIDSO in the past and are open to any coordination with them. We will, however, not go with the TMCP,” said Saumik Ray, IC student leader at Presidency College.

In last year’s elections, the SFI won after a gap of seven years. Of the 72 seats in the college, the SFI bagged 38 seats, the IC and AIDSO combine got 34 seats.

AIDSO leader Prabir Roy said efforts were on to bring all anti-SFI groups together. “We do not want the SFI to take an advantage of the divide. But elections cannot be fought with the sole agenda of defeating the SFI. We have to keep in mind our ideologies,” he said.

Interestingly, as the SUCI is in coalition with the Trinamool in the state, the AIDSO cannot oppose the TMCP.

Election issues
Among the various election issues, the issue being debated the most is the university status of the college. While the SFI is claiming that it is the union that set the ball rolling for the university status, IC representatives argue that it was because of keeping the college under their control that the CPM did not allow any freedom to the college. Other issues are the college fest and cultural activities of the college which the IC claims have been neglected during the SFI tenure.