Talking to Express Newsline, Kane said the elections would be held before Diwali vacation as decided by the syndicate earlier. According to him, this was one of the ways to restore normalcy in the university.

``There is enough time for students to nominate their candidates,'' he pointed out, adding two weeks are more than enough for campaigning. ``These are not political elections,'' he stated matter-of-factly.

Predictably, his decision struck a sour note with student leaders. General Secretary of the Faculty of Commerce, Jigar Inamdar pointed out that if elections were held as per schedule, not many would turn up to vote. Claiming that the time was inadequate for campaigning, he said, in this little time candidates would find it difficult to familiarise themselves with students, because of Navratri.

Secondly, he said, considering the forthcoming festivals, not many would show willingness to campaign.

Meanwhile, the entrance examinations for the 60-odd students of the Department of English, Faculty of Arts were conducted amidst police protection on Thursday, despite efforts by student union leaders to prevent the tests from being conducted.

Alleging that the head of the department and the police posted on duty misbehaved with them, leaders claimed that no other department conducted written tests.

Later, students went to submit a memorandum to the V-C, protesting against the tests, but had to return disappointed, as they were asked to give the memorandum in English and not Gujarati.