Bhubaneswar: A scuffle broke out between police personnel and activists of NSUI, the student wing of the Congress, during a demonstration outside the Odisha Assembly Wednesday, demanding elections in colleges and state-run universities.
Members of the National Students’ Union of India, led by its state unit president Udit Narayan Pradhan, marched to the Assembly at Mahatma Gandhi Marg, holding posters and placards aloft.
NSUI activists scuffled with the police when they were not allowed to march and gherao the Assembly premises.
Some of them were whisked away in police vehicles and released later.
Pradhan said the NSUI has been protesting for the past several years to press its demand for the students’ union elections in colleges and state-run universities. After the BJP government came to power in the state, the student wing of the Congress, again raised its demand, he said.
“We hit the streets as the state government has not given any assurance about the students’ polls in Odisha. The BJD government had stopped conducting the union polls since 2017. Now, the BJP government is following the same,” said NSUI former state president Yashir Nawaz.
He alleged that the BJP was “reluctant” to conduct the college elections as RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) “feared of losing the polls”.
Odisha Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan had stated that the BJP government doesn’t have sufficient time to hold students’ union elections this year.
“So, the college polls will be conducted from next year onwards,” he added.
PTI