HYDERABAD: “These are upcoming movies and trailers are already out,” says Sharath, an MSc student at the University of Hyderabad (UOH), looking at a number of banners put up by students’ organisations on the campus. He couldn’t have explained it better.Well, the elections are back in UoH and it’s festive time. The intellectually vibrant campus is all set for students’ union elections on October 18.There’s no dearth of issues for the polls.Students’ organisations affiliated to political parties have been campaigning on everything from gender sensitivity to social and university issues. But the one that takes the cake is of course the Telangana issue.The Telangana Students’ Association allied with the Bahujan Students’ Front is all geared up to take the challenge to the powerful outgoing students’ union alliance of the Students Federation of India-Ambedkar Students’ Association and the rightwing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.Chandraiah, a PhD political science scholar and convenor of the TSA-BSF, wants change. “We are ready to challenge the opportunistic and hegemonic politics in HCU for a genuine cause,” he thunders and claims that TSA has a vote-bank of 1,500- odd students.Last year, the SFI-ASA alliance had swept the elections with an average majority of a thousand votes per post.Another important factor in this year’s election is the rise in the number of women candidates. This year, five women are in the fray as against only one last year. One of the women, Sahiti Reddy, a Master of Performing Arts student, is contesting for the post of the president— in what many say is unprecedented in the university.Chief election commissiner of the varsity Suresh Naik, also a student, told City Express that precautionary measures had been taken to avoid a repeat of the infamous 2009 elections, which were declared void following allegations of massive rigging.“We have adopted a booklet format for the ballot sheets and also a spiral bound voters’ list, which makes it technically impossible for somebody to indulge in malpractice,” Naik explained.In the campus that has students from different sections of the society, social groups as well as regional groups like Tribal Students’ Forum (TSF), North-East Students’ Forum (NESF), Dalit Students’ Union (DSU), Malayali and Bengali community etc have a strong say in the elections.
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