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Wednesday’s decision is being seen as another victory for the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP). On March 1, taking action on the issues raised by SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Chief Minister Mayawati had withdrawn the additional charge of administrative head from Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh, stripping him of the Cabinet minister status. On March 4, she wrote to the Prime Minister to include 17 castes in the SC category, as sought by the Samajwadi Party during its regime.
The Leader of Opposition, Mulayam Singh Yadav, had termed it “murder of democracy” when a ban was enforced on student polls last year. While Mulayam was not present in the House on Wednesday, senior SP leader Azam Khan thanked the CM for accepting their demand.
The Mayawati government had enforced the ban on September 7, 2007, saying student polls were triggering criminal activities on the campus besides spoiling the academic environment of the institutions. “My government enforced the ban to check illegal and anti-social activities on the campus. The ban did bring improvement in the academic environment of the institutions,” she told the House.
On October 8, the Mayawati government had constituted a committee headed by the Chief Secretary to review all aspects of student union elections.
The CM told the House that the committee, on March 4, in principle recommended student union polls on Lyngdoh Committee guidelines.
She also shared with the legislators the following salient features highlighted by the committee, which would be strictly followed in the polls.
* Elections will be direct where only students are voting to elect their student leader
* Student not belonging to the institution will not take part in election
* Strict administrative action, including cancellation of enrolment, if an outsider takes part in election
* The poll process — from announcemestate nt of election, campaigning to declaration of the result — to be completed in ten days
* The candidate should have 75% attendance or the required attendance, whichever is higher
* Upper age limit is 22 for undergraduate candidate and 24-25 for PG student. For research scholar, it will be 28
* Candidates should not have any criminal case in any court. He should not have been handed out any punishment by any court
* The candidate should have never faced any administrative action by the institute
* The candidate should be a regular student of the institute enrolled in any regular course of not less than one-year duration
* The candidate should not spend more than Rs 5,000. No printed publicity material should be used, only handmade posters will be allowed for campaigning
* No caste-based campaigning
* If a candidate violates any of the guidelines, his candidature should be cancelled
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