Rahul criticises Mayawatis ban on college election in UP

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi today criticised the Uttar Pradesh Governments decision to scrap the students union election in all the colleges and universities of the State.

Amethi (UP), Sept 20 :Congress MP Rahul Gandhi today criticised the Uttar Pradesh Government's decision to scrap the student's union election in all the colleges and universities of the State.

Rahul, who is in a three-day visit of his constituency, said: "Scrapping off the students' union elections by the Uttar Pradesh Government is not right, and it's an attack on the democratic rights of the students."

On September 7, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati had slapped a state-wide ban on student union elections in universities and colleges, citing that the ban would help in "improving law and order on campuses".

"Union elections are not only vitiating academic atmosphere on the campuses but also creating a law and order problem and causing immense misery to the people," Mayawati had then said.

The ban, which came into immediate effect in the State, sparked criticisms from different sections, but at the same time many students also welcomed it as they argued that college elections were 'politicising' the universities and were doing nothing for the betterment of students.

This is not the first time that such ban has been imposed in the State. Earlier, on three occasions, such ban was imposed, beginning from 1967.

Since elections in colleges became platform for budding politicians, muscle and money power became synonyms to such polls. This led to the Supreme Court directing all the State and Central Government to implement the Lyngdoh Committee report on college election that had laid down stringent measures to make polls free from corrupt practices.

Mayawati's predecessor in the State, Mulayam Singh had earlier directed the colleges and universities in the State to hold the polls as per Supreme Court directives.

ANI