Last Student Union Polls Held in Feb 2020, Terms Ended 2021, New Election Demands Grow

Jadavpur University’s archives show that the last election for its faculty student unions was held in February 2020. The elected representatives from the Engineering & Technology, Science and Arts unions completed their mandates in February 2021, after which no successor was elected.

The university’s RTI answer, provided by Senior Director (Youth Welfare) Bappa Malik, confirms that the three unions have been operating without any elected leadership for over two years.

During the previous Trinamool Congress regime, student activists repeatedly demanded fresh polls, citing the need for democratic oversight of campus affairs. Though the state education department issued several assurances, the promised elections never took place.

With the BJP‑led government now in power, student unions across West Bengal are renewing calls for immediate elections, emphasizing that the lack of elected bodies undermines student representation.

The demand for polls also follows a period of heightened tension on campus, marked by violent confrontations between the CPI(M) Students Federation of India and the ABVP, which resulted in multiple injuries.

In a recent Raksha Bandhan ceremony, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari warned that the university, once a beacon of academic excellence, had been exploited by successive political factions to spread anti‑national thought.