Polling for Panjab University students' council held in Chandigarh

Chandigarh: Polling to elect new members of the Panjab University Campus Students Council was held here on Thursday amid tight security arrangements, officials said.

As many as 15,854 students of the University were eligible to vote in the election that began at 9.30 am and continued till 11 am, they said.

A total of 23 candidates were in the fray -- eight for the president's post, four for the secretary's post, five for the vice president's post and six for the joint secretary's post.

Around 180 polling booths with more than 300 ballot boxes were set up for the polls.

The result is expected to be out in the evening following the counting of votes at the gymnasium hall of the University, said the officials.

Prince Chaudhary of Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS), Rahul Nain of National Student's Union of India (NSUI), Tarun Sidhu of Students' Organisation of India (SOI), and Sarah Sharma of Punjab Students' Union-Lalkaar (PSU-Lalkaar) were in the race for the post of president of PUCSC.

Arpita Malik of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Alka of Ambedkar Student's Forum (ASF), Anurag Dalal as Independent and Mukul Chauhan of Team Mukul were also contesting for the PUCSC president's post.

For the post of vice president, ABVP's Abhishek Kapoor, NSUI's Archit Garg, Karandeep Singh of Sath, Karanveer Kumar of the University Student's Organisation (USO) and Shivani were in the fray.

Jashanpreet Singh of the Students' Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU), Paras Prashar of NSUI, ABVP's Shivnandan Rikhee and Vineet Yadav of the Indian National Students Organisation (INSO) were contesting for the post of secretary.

For the post of joint secretary, Amit Banga of Panjab University Student Union (PUSU), ABVP's Jasvinder Rana, Rohit Sharma of Himachal Pradesh Students Union (HPSU), Shubham of Hindustan Students Association (HSA) and two others were in the fray.

Around 1,000 policemen were deployed for the polls.