Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: The high drama that unfolded with feverish campaigning on campuses ahead of the student’s union polls finally came to an end with the conclusion of elections at different higher educational institutions in the city Wednesday. The ambience at Rama Devi Women’s University, which witnessed its very first election after getting the university tag, remained loud as usual with all the candidates backed by the Biju Chhatra Janata Dal (BCJD), except the dramatic secretary, coming triumphant.
BCJD presidential candidate Megha Kanungo beat her National Student’s Union of India (NSUI) opponent Truptimayee Behera by a huge margin of close to 400 votes.
Others in the race including Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) backed Prajnyashree Acharya, and independent candidate Megha Goswami, suffered defeats at the hands of BCJD candidates.
Sarojini Sarada of BCJD secured the vice-president’s post against Dipeeka Mohanty. Anisha Subuddhi secured the general secretary’s post against Priyanka Khuntia while Ranjita Behera became the new joint general secretary by defeating Sushmita Roy.
The dramatic secretary’s post, however, was secured by the NSUI backed candidate Ronali Roy who got more votes than her opponents Subhasree Subhasmita and Smruti Priyadarsini.
The results at RD acquired slowly became clear during the second half of the counting with celebration outside the campus wall peaking. With the opening of the last ballot, scores of BCJD supporters of the university thronged to the main road, blocked it and started dancing to the beats of dhols. The skies were lit up with fire crackers and not-so-melodious sounds echoed across the area.
The weird part was Utkal University students and other male characters dressed up in white as ‘netas’ and shouting slogans for the BJD joined in the celebrations. The joined the elated winners and their bunch of cheerleaders at the university main gate in dancing and merrymaking.
BCJD backed candidates have also come up trumps at Buxi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar Autonomous College where Langnajit Patra grounded his counterpart Aditya Jha with a huge margin of 456 votes. Smruti Ranjan Panda ascended to the general secretary post’s by defeating his opponent Shantanu Nayak with 786 votes. Arundhati Sunderai got the vice-president’s post by defeating Krushna Chandra Rout.
Sanket Rath won the assistant general secretary’s post defeating Soumya Ranjan Sahu while Pankanj Mohanty became the athletic secretary and Soumya Ranjan Mahapatra the dramatic secretary. The counting process at BJB carried on well into Wednesday evening due mainly to the huge number of ballots being cast – according to the authorities around 1,300.
Bulu Gouda became the president of Deva Rai College while the general secretary post’s has been bagged by Sasmita Nayak. The scenario, however, remained different at Kamala Nehru Women’s College where tranquility reigned Tuesday. Here too BCJD candidates bagged most of the posts. At Kamala Nehru, the presidential candidate Arundhati Panda got a clear post due to her uncontested stand while battle raged for the general secretary’s and dramatic secretary’s posts.
Kalpana Samal who was contesting for the general secretary’s post, defeated Sarita Behera by a huge margin of 189 votes. Another candidate Itishree Biswal tasted defeat at the hands of Samal while Laxmipriya Kalia snatched the dramatic secretary’s post by flattening Puja Subuddhi by a margin of 211 votes. The college witnessed 45 per cent, the total roll strength being 2,700 students at both Plus II and III levels.
At Capital Law College presidential candidate Chinmaya Pradhan clinched the apex post by triumphing over opponent Durgadutta Rath by a slender margin of 20 votes. Sources said that Rath’s group has been winning the elections at the law college for the past seven years.
Dilip Meher got the general secretary’s post while Samarjit Mohanty ascended to the vice-president’s post at the law college. Saini Maharana won the dramatic secretary’s post, Surasnata Bohidar the athletic secretary’s post and Chinmay Baliarsingh the SSG post.
Post the declaration of results, BCJD President Byomkesh Rai during a press conference said candidates backed by the BCJD have triumphed at 99 per cent colleges across the state. He also said that in the twin cities BCJD candidates have won all the posts.
