As Odisha braces for elections, the students' wings of political parties are drawing up agendas to attract young and new voters from colleges and universities. The agendas include several promises for students and a few demands, the prominent among them being the students union elections, stated a report in The New Indian Express.
There are 7.99 lakh first-time voters (in the 18 to 19 age group), who constitute around 2.39 per cent of the total 3.34 crore voters in the state. Most of them are enrolled in higher educational institutions.
While Biju Janata Dal's (BJD) students' wing Biju Chhatra Janata Dal (BCJD) and Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) are preparing their students' manifestos, Indian National Congress' state unit of National Students' Union of India (NSUI) has listed out nine promises for students that it promises to fulfil if voted to power. NSUI will launch its '9 guarantees' for students today, Saturday, March 30.
The BCJD on Friday, March 29, began a four-day district-level campaign to invite suggestions from the students' community on development of higher education sector in the state. Observers of BCJD are reaching out to students at the district level to collect their suggestions.
"These suggestions will be screened and included in a student manifesto that the party is preparing along with its poll manifesto. If the BJD is voted to power, we will get the suggestions in the student manifesto approved in the government's first cabinet meeting," said Debi Ranjan Tripathy, President of BCJD.
The demand for resumption of students' union elections on campuses is top on the agenda for both ABVP and NSUI. Such elections have not been held in the state for the last six years. They were stopped in 2018 by the then Higher Education Minister Arun Sahoo on the pretext that it led to violence on campuses. As an alternate arrangement, the higher education institutions have been nominating student representatives to various bodies where it is required.
ABVP Odisha Secretary Arajeet Pattnayak said the students' manifesto includes demands of students union elections, faculty recruitment, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 implementation in the state, skill development of students and a drugs-free Odisha.
And the students' wing will not just publicise these demands during BJP campaigning at higher educational institutions but also handover the manifesto to any political party coming to the campuses for the purpose.
"All these years, the academic standard of colleges and universities has only deteriorated and there are no student leaders to protest it. Which is why, any party coming to power should make sure student leaders are elected," said Arajeet.
Similarly, NSUI-Odisha's '9 guarantees' include holding of students union elections, 30 per cent reservation for students from poor socio-economic background in private colleges and universities, free scooters for students in government institutions, regulation of fee hike by private institutions, 80 per cent reservation of skilled and unskilled jobs for the local unemployed youth in the industries, among other things.
