PUSU polls: 20,000 to cast vote at 46 booths today

PATNA: Over 20,000 students will exercise their franchise to elect five key office-bearers and 24 executive members of the

Patna University Students’ Union

(PUSU) on Wednesday.

Altogether 41 candidates are contesting for five key offices – president, vice-president, general secretary, joint secretary and treasurer. Fifty-eight students are contesting for 18 seats of council membership from different constituencies. Six candidates – Akansha Verma, Julekha Kalam, Priyanka Srivastava, Simran Mandal from Patna Women’s College, Rani Kumari from Women’s Training College and Tarun Kumar from Patna Training College – have been elected council members unopposed.

The polling will be held at 46 booths located in 14 different institutions under tight security arrangements. The district administration has deputed adequate police personnel in and around the college campuses to ensure free and fair election. Mobile patrolling has also been introduced on the campus, especially around the hostels, said PU proctor G K Palei.

The polling will be held from 8am to 2pm. Students and polling personnel, including teachers and non-teaching staff, will be allowed to enter the polling booths only after showing their identity cards. Voters will not be allowed to carry their cellphones with them at the booths.

Candidates or their authorised representatives will be allowed to be present at the polling booths as well as the counting centres. The ballot boxes will be sealed in presence of the candidates or their representatives. The counting of votes will start at 4pm on Wednesday at Patna Science College examination hall. The results are likely to be announced late Wednesday night.

The ballot papers will be sent to all the polling booths at least two hours before the commencement of polling on Saturday. More than 200 police personnel will guard the polling and counter centres.

There are nine contestants for the post of president. They are Abhinav Kumar, Abhishek Raj, Bhagya Bharti, Madhusudan Prasad Mukul, Mohit Prakash, Rajeev Kumar, Rakesh Prasad, Syed Ali Raza Hashmi and Sujit Kumar.

As many as eight students are contesting for vice-presidentship. They are Aaditya Kumar Dutta, Abhishek Kumar, Anjana Singh, Asish Pushkar, Gagan Kumar, Mansi Sinha, Rahul Kumar and Simran Parveen.

The number of contestants for the post of general secretary is nine. They are Aditi Sah, Anshika Kumari, Khusboo Kumari, Manikant Mani, Priyanka Priyadarshini, Raushan Keshari, Raushan Kumar, Ravi Kumar and Rohit Kumar.

There are eight contestants for the post of joint secretary. They include Arvind Kumar, Manish Kumar Paswan, Md Osama Khursheed, Md Tausif Afaque, Prateek Rajveer, Raja Ravi, Shaukat Ali and Vidya Nand Paswan.

The number of contestants for the post of treasurer is seven and they are Ankit Kumar, Kumar Satyam, Mandip Kumar, Pratyush Manglam, Satyam Prakash, Saurav Kumar and Vikrant.