Punjab varsity polls: first woman president elected, ABVP defeated

The Punjab University, established in 1947, made history by electing a women to the post of president for the first time on Thursday.

Defeating the BJP-RSS’ student organisation ABVP, a 22-year-old student leader Kanupriya, won the post by margin of 719 votes. A prominent leader of the Students for Society (SFS), a leftist organisation not affiliated to any political party, Kanupriya is pursuing her post graduation in Zoology.

“The University belongs to the students not BJP, Congress or Akali,” said Kanupriya after the victory. She vowed to continue with her struggle for the welfare of the student community .

Her party, SFS polled 2,802 votes while the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) came second with 2083 votes. Students Organisation of India (SOI) got 1997 votes. The National Students Union of India (NSUI) got 1583 votes while 209 votes went to NOTA. Daler Singh of ISA (SOI alliance) won the vice president’s post, Amarinder Singh of INSO (SOI alliance) won the secretary’s post and Vipul Atray of the NSUI won the joint secretary’s post.

The Students for Society was founded in 2010, and has contested four times — each time for the post of president only.

Sachinderpal Pali, one of the organisation's founders, said, "These elections mean a lot to us. Political parties play with money and muscle, but over a period of time, students have realised who is better for them."

SFS has held demonstrations and organised several street plays to raise awareness about issues in the campus.

SFS has been a vocal critic of gender discrimination in the university and has promised to remove curfew timings for girls hostels and to work harder on making the campus vehicle-free ,during the campaign.