ABVP creates history; wins Panjab University polls

Chandigarh: In a first in the university's history, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the BJP, on Wednesday scripted history by winning the Panjab University Campus Students' Council (PUCSC) election.

Gaurav Veer Sohal, a research scholar from the University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS), won the post of the President by securing 3,148 votes and defeating his closest competitor, Sumit Sharma, by a margin of 488 votes.

After winning the elections, Sohal told the media, “My heart goes out to the people who are suffering due to the flood in Punjab.”

There were eight candidates in the fray for the post. This is the first time that the ABVP won the President’s seat since the Panjab University here started holding direct elections for the student office-bearers in 1977, IANS reported.

For a long time, student wings of national-level organisations were not active on the campus or played a minor role, as home-grown outfits dominated. That has changed over the past decade or so.

Responding to the party’s win, Punjab state unit chief Sunil Jakhar wrote on X, “ABVP has scripted history by winning the election for the presidentship of Panjab University Students’ Council for the first time in 48 years. Heartiest congratulations to Gaurav Veer Sohal on becoming the President of PUSC, and kudos to the entire ABVP team for this great victory.”

Other student wings -- the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) of the Congress; the Association of Students for Alternative Politics (ASAP) of Punjab's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP); and the Students Organisation of India (SOI) of the Shiromani Akali Dal -- performed poorly this time.

Last year, the election was won by a rebel from the NSUI. AAP’s student wing had won in 2022.

Panjab University, known for its alumni like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Nobel Laureate Hargobind Khorana, contributed to science in India and internationally -- a facet that is not well known.

Originally called the University of Punjab, the institution was established at Lahore on October 14, 1882, and it was reestablished in independent India on October 1, 1947.

The university shifted to its present campus, spread in a beautiful and sprawling 550 acres, in Chandigarh in 1956.

The university has around 60 teaching and research departments, and over 170 colleges are affiliated with it.