Most of the candidates for the posts of university vice-president or university general secretary in the 1998 chapter of the annual exercise belong to the faculties of Commerce, Law or Arts. Is it also a coincidence that neither attendance nor percentages are criteria for admission in these faculties?

While eight students are contesting for the vice-president's post, 13 students are in the race for the UGS's chair. Janak Makwana completed his graduation in 1995, but has secured re-admission three times to run for the UGS's post for the third time running.

He has an soulmate in Narayan Rajput, who's contesting for the UVP's post for the fourth consecutive year under the alias `Saddam'. He re-admitted himself to the Faculty of Commerce for the fourth time with the specific aim of running for the elections.

Hetal Shah, who's contesting for the VP's post for the first time, too, has been re-admitted into the faculty of Commerce for the second consecutive time.

The reason why graduation doesn't mean the end of the road for these aspiring leaders success eludes them consistently is because a candidate is only required to be a regular student without any charges of malpractice or cheating during examinations.

While students who re-admit themselves into the university with ulterior purposes violate the spirit of the regulation, they subvert the letter of the law of the clause that states they must not have been indicted in any criminal case. A number of candidates have FIRs against them and have been hauled up time and again over campus rampage.

Having said that, it must also be said that a section of re-admitted students contest the elections repeatedly to bring about some changes. Most of them fail, apparently because they don't have any party backing.

But the re-admission factor is not the only indication of the MSU election malaise. Student union president S R Pandya believes this is not the right time for elections in the first place. ``By the time the annual elections are over, it's time for the academic session to draw to a close. So there's very little time for welfare activities'', he points out.

As a result, funds for union activities go unutilised. ``Of the Rs 1.25 lakhs allocated for union activities last year, Rs 90,000 was spent on blazers'', says Pandya meaningfully.