Law Kumar Mishra
The Patna University Students’ Union election is scheduled to be held on February 28.
On Saturday, the Vice Chancellor announced the postponement of the election, but under pressure from the student community, the decision was reversed at midnight.
Earlier, candidates were involved in widespread violence. At Science College, an English professor was beaten inside his classroom. At Patna Women’s College, female students were harassed. The police recovered bombs from Minto Hostel. Eight students were arrested.
The Students’ Union, which has 20,000 members, was established in 1959. Its first president was Shailesh Chandra Mishra, the son of the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court,Satish Chandra Mishra.The then Defence Minister V. K. Krishna Menon attended the inaugural function.
In the 1972 election, Lalu Prasad Yadav lost. It was his first election. He was defeated by Ramjatan Sinha, a student of Science College. Narendra Singh of B. N. College became the General Secretary. Sinha belonged to the Bhumihar caste and Singh to the Rajput caste. It was the first time there was a contest between students of upper castes and backward castes.
The following year, Lalu Prasad Yadav, who was a member of the Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha, formed an alliance with Sushil Kumar Modi of the Vidyarthi Parishad. This brought together Yadav and Bania voters. Ravishankar Prasad and Prabhat Jamiyar were Kayastha candidates. Lalu Prasad Yadav defeated the Bhumihar candidate Ramsharan Prasad Singh, a student of the Engineering College.
The credit for mobilising students from backward castes goes to local leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Ram Bahadur Rai, a Vidyarthi Parishad pracharak who lived in Ayyar Hostel at Banaras Hindu University, came to Patna and took charge of the election campaign.
I too was a student of Patna University. Candidates distributed colourful handbills filled with a pleasant fragrance. Lalu Prasad Yadav’s election speeches focused on student welfare. He became popular among women students because of his playful style of speaking. At Magadh Mahila College, he noticed that girls had to bend a lot to drink water from the taps. He announced, “When I become president, I will raise the tap so high that girls will be able to drink water with their chests held high.”
Earlier, Patna University used to host inter-university cricket tournaments, in which teams from Jadavpur, Sagar, and Bombay would come to play. The Patna University team would lose. When Lalu went to campaign at Science College, he announced, “After becoming president, the first thing I will ensure is that every player gets a free tin of Bournvita every month.”
The Returning Officer was S. K. Bose, the principal of B. N. College. Counting was taking place on the second floor of his college. CRPF personnel were deployed. At night, the hall suddenly went dark and there was a loud noise. Lalu Prasad Yadav started shouting, “A bomb has exploded.” The counting was suspended. The District Magistrate of Patna also arrived. An investigation revealed that some tin ballot boxes containing ballot papers had been thrown down from the hall.
The next day, Lalu Prasad Yadav was declared elected by a large margin. His entire team also won. Five members of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s cabinet were also victorious. The first cabinet meeting was held in the Students’ Union office.
At that time, it was an official arrangement that the university provided a telephone connection to the Students’ Union president both at the office and at home, and the university paid for it. The Students’ Union was powerful. Its president and general secretary were nominated as members of committees of the Bihar government and the Patna administration. On their recommendation, special ticket counters were set up in Patna’s cinema halls.
In later elections, Ashwini Kumar Choubey became president, and he later went on to be appointed a Union minister. Leaders like Karpoori Thakur and George Fernandes used to come to campaign in the Students’ Union elections.
In the 1978 Students’ Union election, Narayan Narayan Lal Nadda (father of JP Nadda) was the Returning Officer. Violence broke out. He had to leave the Rani Ghat Professor Colony and take shelter at the house of an MLA on Harding Road.
(The author is a senior journalist based at Patna in Bihar)
