Patna: Despite provisions for annual students’ union elections under university laws, students in most state universities currently have no elected representatives. Of the state’s 17 traditional universities, only Patna University (PU) has had an elected students’ union in recent years, while Patliputra University (PPU) has not conducted a single election since its establishment in 2018. With Raj Bhavan now pushing universities to revive elected student bodies, the absence of campus polls has once again come under scrutiny.PU dean, students’ welfare, Kameshwar Pandit, said the university has not yet notified the dissolution of the existing Patna University Students’ Union (PUSU), allowing it to continue functioning for now. “The next PUSU election will be announced after admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate courses are completed and hostel accommodation is allotted,” he said.The situation is starker at Patliputra University (PPU), which has not held a single students’ union election since its establishment in 2018. PPU registrar Abu Bakar Rizwi said students had demanded elections about six months ago, but were told the exercise would be undertaken only after the university shifts to its own campus at Bakhtiyarpur and houses all postgraduate departments there.Former PUSU general secretary Ranbir Nandan, now chairman of the Bihar State Religious Trust Board, said the absence of elected unions had deprived students of a vital platform for grievance redressal.“Students’ unions served as an effective mechanism for raising and resolving issues. They regularly took students’ demands to authorities and ensured follow-up action. Unions also organised academic and extra-curricular activities, including sports, debates and cultural programmes, keeping students engaged in constructive pursuits,” he said. He lamented that campuses now lack such activities due to the alleged insensitivity of authorities.A vice-chancellor, requesting anonymity, offered a more candid explanation. Universities outside PU, he said, avoid regular elections because of concerns over political volatility, campus violence and administrative challenges. “Successive govts have preferred docile campuses over organised student power, effectively suppressing democratic feedback channels on state and national issues,” he said.According to him, the reluctance stems from four factors: fear of caste and political clashes, an administrative preference for quiet campuses, the use of student bodies as proxies in political battles, and an “evasion of accountability” that leaves student dissatisfaction fragmented and ineffective.The contradiction is striking. Both the Patna University Act, 1976, and the Bihar State Universities Act, 1976, mandate annual students’ union elections. Yet universities have repeatedly found reasons to defer them.That reluctance has deep political roots. PU held its first students’ union election in 1959 and went on to produce several prominent political leaders, including Lalu Prasad, Sushil Kumar Modi and Ravi Shankar Prasad.In 1973-74, student leaders transformed campus discontent over inflation, shortages, unemployment and administrative failures into the Bihar Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti movement. The agitation eventually drew Jayaprakash Narayan into its fold and culminated in his historic June 5, 1974, call for “Sampoorna Kranti” at Gandhi Maidan.The student movement later emerged as a major force in the anti-Emergency struggle and helped reshape Indian politics after 1977. The question confronting Bihar today extends beyond the conduct of campus polls: can a democracy that celebrates student participation afford to keep its universities politically voiceless?With Raj Bhavan now pushing universities towards elected students’ unions, the long-suppressed campus voice may finally be returning. Whether universities embrace that democratic space or once again find reasons to delay elections remains to be seen, said retired Patliputra University teacher Mahesh Chandra.
