In a low turnout as compared to many other colleges in Dehradun where the elections were held recently, 22.71 per cent of the voters cast votes in the students’ union election in DAV (PG) College held on Saturday.
When the polling was ending, three students, including a girl, were caught by the administrative officers at the college gate who were about to cast votes with fake college identity cards. However, save for this incident, the voting passed off peacefully.
While 17, 674 students figured in the voters’ list a total of 4,015 voters cast votes in the election as polling began at 10 am and continued till 3.45 pm in the college campus amid tight security, said College election officer RK Pathak. All the ballot boxes were kept in a strong room in the college in the presence of the representatives of various students’ union groups, college staff members and administrative and police officers. The duty of keeping guard on the strong room has been assigned to the district police.
The counting of votes for this election will be held on Monday and the results would be announced later the same day.
A total of 21 candidates were in the fray for various posts, including those of president, vice president, general secretary, joint secretary, university representative, treasurer and executive members. Keen contest is expected on two posts- president and general secretary, the students said.
The election officer Pathak claimed, “The polling went off peacefully except a few minor incidents. Elaborate security arrangements were made at all the polling booths inside and outside the college campus. We divided the election areas into four zones and a total of 23 polling booths were erected. College staff members were deployed at each of the polling booths and they were assigned respective duties as presiding and polling officers.”
He further said that the college staff members in sufficient number were deployed at the college main gate and the voters who were carrying genuine admit cards were allowed to cast votes. “In the final leg of the polling, three students were caught at college gate by college administrative officers. It was found they were carrying false college identity cards. They were handed over to the police later,” he said
Dalanwala Police Station in-charge inspector, Anil Kumar Joshi said that these three students had been caught at the college gate by the college administrative officers. They were questioned and they were released after half an hour after they gave an undertaking, stating that they would not indulge in such malpractice in the future. These students had been caught before they could reach polling booths. Police also seized college admit cards from their possession, he added.
Voters were witnessed standing in queues outside the polling booths to cast votes. Candidates’ supporters were witnessed motivating the students to cast votes their intended ways.
Police had made elaborate security arrangements around all sides of the crossings of DAV (PG) College. Police had erected barricades at the crossings, resulting in traffic snarl that inconvenienced the commuters.
Circle Officer Pramod Kumar, Inspector Anil Kumar Joshi and other police officers and personnel were deployed in the college to ensure glitch-free election. Supporters of various students’ groups were witnessed conducting small rallies and raising slogans and motivating the voters who were passing by.
Election campaign outside the college campus appeared to have reached its crescendo on the day the election was held. However, the low turnout was proved to be anti-climax, given the euphoria the election spawned in the aftermath of the district magistrate postponing it for three days on grounds that conflicted with the lyngdoh Commission recommendations.
The college principal Dr Devendra Bhasin said polling went off peacefully. Two candidates are in the fray for the post of president while five for the post of vice president, four for the post of general secretary, two for the post of joint secretary, two for the post of treasurer, five for the post of university representative and one candidate for each post of the executive members.
The election officer Pathak said that ABVP candidate Paras Goyal and NSUI member Navdeep Negi and independent Jagveer Singh are in the fray for the post of president while Shumbam, Sandeep and Vikas Bhatt are contesting for the post of general secretary. Anita Negi and Prashant Raturi are fighting election for the post of treasurer. Rakesh Rawat, S Uniyal, Arun Bisht, Monika, Harindar and Singh Bedi are in the reckoning for the post of university representative. Harish Kumar, Komal Chauhan, Sushma Chauhan, Pankaj Mehta, B Singh are contesting election for the post of vice-president.