Under Prashant Kishor's Leadership, JD(U) Bags Top Posts at Patna University Polls

New Delhi: Heralding a wave of change in student politics, JD(U)'s recently-appointed national vice-president Prashant Kishor led the party's student wing to victory on Thursday. Putting up its best-ever performance, Chhatra JD(U) won the president and treasurer posts at Patna University Students Union (PUSU) elections.

This is only the second time in the history of Chhatra JD(U) when its candidates have won key posts in PUSU elections. Previously, the student body had won the joint secretary's post in 2012.

Hailing the victory of Mohit Prakash and Kumar Satyam for the posts of president and treasurer respectively, JD(U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar tweeted "poll results have placed a mirror before those who have become synonymous with lumpenisation of politics. Patna University students have voted in favour of politics that is free from corruption and imbued with the virtues of character and good conduct."

For the other top posts, the ABVP winners are Anjana Singh (vice president), Manikant Mani (general secretary) and Raja Ravi (joint secretary).

The PUSU polls this year witnessed fierce campus rivalry between the Chhatra JD(U) and the ABVP, with allegations of Kishor meddling in the elections putting the party's relations with its ally BJP under strain.

The student elections have been mired in controversy ever since Kishor was attacked by Patna University students while he had gone to meet vice-chancellor Rasbihari Singh. Irked by JD(U) VP's alleged interference, a team of BJP leaders met Bihar governor Lalji Tandon and requested him to ensure that the polls are conducted in a fair manner.

The meeting had triggered protests by the ABVP and other student bodies and the poll strategist-turned-politicians vehicle was pelted with stones. The police rounded up some ABVP leaders for

stone-pelting and a delegation of BJP MLAs made a late-night dash to the Raj Bhavan in protest and staged a dharna in front of the police station concerned the next day.

Kishor was said to have been taking a keen interest in bringing youths to the JD(U) of which he was appointed the national vice-president within weeks of becoming a primary member.

Incidentally, both Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi, a senior BJP leader, had been PUSU leaders. Over the years, the university has given the country various leaders and ministers. In 1974, at the call of Jayprakash Narayan, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Sushil Modi, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Ashwini Choubey took a plunge into state politics.

While Yadav served as the president of Patna university Students' Union, Sushil Modi served as his general secretary in the same year. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has also served as a general secretary of PUSU.

Interestingly, according to Lyngdoh Committee report, it was Nitish Kumar's government, which had approved to hold the students' union elections in Bihar. The Lyngdoh panel, set up on the basis of a Supreme Court directive, had in 2006 recommended that students' unions election should be held across the country.