There are seven candidates contesting for the post of the president in the coming elections. The competition is getting intense between SFI-AISF combine candidate Vijoo Krishnan, ex-vice-president of JNUSU, and ABVP candidate Jatin Mohanty, ex-general secretary. AISA candidate Kavitha Krishan poses the third alternative.

With the elections scheduled for November 13, the students are busy painting posters for their respective parties as printed posters are not permitted on campus. Colourful posters displaying red stars (SFI-AISF), a red sun (AISA) and a yellow torch (ABVP) adorn the walls of the dining rooms of hostels, bus-stops and the library canteen. The JNU election commission does not permit the parties to put up posters elsewhere.

Every night, after dinner, tables are scrubbed clean and students gather to listen to the candidates contesting for the Central Panel. Saroj, a PHD student, says ``We finish our dinner and gather at the mess. The candidates talk about their strategies. We debate various issues including the saffronisation of education, end of ideology, gender sensitivity and other related issues''.

While the Left parties vow at the post-dinner meetings to drive the ``lumpen elements out of campus'' and to ``preserve the democratic traditions of JNU'', the Right wing advocates a ``sense of national pride'' and ``economic progress''. The debates continue till midnight. The students keep moving in and out of the dining hall for hot cups at tea at the nearest campus dhaba.

A SFI-AISF candidate argues over the education policies followed by the BJP government: ``The HRD ministry is planning to re-introduce the Private Universities Bill as the Self-Financing Universities Bill in the winter session of Parliament which is in total defiance to the strong opposition from the student movement.'' An ABVP candidate counters, ``All the Leftists talk about is the state apparatus dictating the education policies. They don't care about our national security''.

Even as the debate continues, perhaps the only campus issues being discussed are the admission policy and sexual harassment. Some students are demanding the setting up of a gender-sensitisation committee which will look into the cases of sexual harassment on campus.

The students also gather at the JNUSU office after dinner. The JNUSU office is stacked with rusted tins that have served as ballot boxes for some 20-odd years. Yusuf, a JNU election commission member, remarks: ``There are certain things that never change during JNU elections. First, we always use the same tins for ballot boxes. Second, it appears as though we have the same list of voters every year. A student who joins the campus leaves only after about eight to 10 years''.