ABVP demands student union elections be held across universities; says 'let new leaders emerge'

Indore: The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Monday demanded that student union elections be held in every university in the country to facilitate the emergence of new leadership from these higher education campuses.

A senior office-bearer of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated organisation said student union elections must be conducted in Madhya Pradesh next year at any cost. "Not only in Madhya Pradesh, but student union elections should be conducted in all universities across the country.

We have raised this demand before the Centre, and we are raising the same demand before the state government," ABVP national general secretary Virendra Singh Solanki told reporters in Indore. Elections to student unions would help new leadership to emerge through education campuses and benefit society, he argued.

Solanki said, "Some governments feel student union elections can vitiate the atmosphere of academic campuses and that unpleasant incidents could lead to disorder. But, we believe the administration must make adequate arrangements to prevent such incidents."

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The ABVP leader opined that when student union elections are being held in prestigious institutions such as the Delhi University and the Jawaharlal Nehru University, why the administration in Madhya Pradesh feels "unequipped" to conduct them. "Our demand is that student union elections be conducted in Madhya Pradesh in 2026, no matter what," Solanki insisted.

Responding to a question, he asserted the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, currently underway in a clutch of states and Union Territories, is an essential step for "purification" of voter lists and the ABVP is creating awareness about the exercise among people in this regard.

The ABVP, which has about 77 lakh members, will organise collective singing of 'Vande Mataram' in every educational campus across the country to mark 150 years of the national song's composition, Solanki maintained.