Panjab University creates history with first woman president

Kanu Priya, the presidential candidate from SFS (Students For Society), the comparatively understated student political party of Panjab University, created history on Thursday by becoming the first woman president to win the PU Campus Student Council (PUCSC) elections. Priya had taken a lead in the votes tally right from the beginning. This student of Zoology in PU, had taken the lead in this election where only 50% votes were cast from the approx.., 15,000 voters.Priya had emerged as a strong contender right from the beginning as she based her manifesto on a burning issue, also left unresolved by the previous council- that of restricted hostel timings for girls. In fact, Priya had said, “We want the hostel to remain open for entry 24*7.” Her other points in the manifesto were, transparent functioning of the Council through maximum student participation, culturally inclusive fests, proper student-teacher ratio etc. SFS had also placed all its eggs on one basket, as the party was only contesting this election for the presidential post. And Priya was also the only woman presidential candidate in the fray. With the delay in results, and SFS taking lead in the initial stage of counting, the mood on campus had gone quiet after 4pm. For a university in which parties like ABVP, NSUI, PUSU have held sway over voters, SFS threw a surprise at many.
Thursday saw a lot of ruckus throughout the city as college students had gathered outside waiting for the final results, which were delayed this year over many hours. The political parties seemed to upset by the fact that SFS was leading.
Dheerja Thakur, president of HIMSU said, "We have worked very hard.”
While results for DAV College, Sector 10 were announced earlier, and INSO was elected to power, Aman Kajal, leader INSO, PU said, "We have already shown how powerful our party is in DAV 10. And we are pretty confident that PU will also show who's the winner.”
When we had asked Kuldeep Singh, president PUSU before the result, he had said, "We know that till now SFS is takin the lead, but what concerns us more is that students haven't come out to vote. Only half of the students have voted, which is not right. We wanted more students to be a part of the electoral system.”
-Faguni Verma