Leaders from the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party hovered around the campus rekindling trouble where it showed signs of subsiding and stoking fires already burning. Strutting around with their henchmen, the leaders managed to sideline the student community and its interests, using lung power to provoke contestants into taking out protest demonstrations and sitting on fast.

Though they have nothing to do with education in Vadodara, former MP and former national Youth Congress president Satyajit Gaekwad and State BJP Youth wing president Amit Thakker, who came to Vadodara from Ahmedabad especially for the elections, played stellar roles in directing activity on polling day. The campus was buzzing with the presence of people affiliated to political parties as members of the students' union acted on the orders of their respective bosses.

Nothing illustrated this better than the problem of the missing name on the ballot sheet. While Hetal Shah, contesting as number 7, initially agreed with the decision of the authorities to defer the polls, changed his mind after a talk persons who were not part of the university set-up.

Similarly, Mayur Patel (Chhote Sardar), contesting under the ABVP's patronage, had decided that he would act according to the decisions of the university authorities to postpone the elections only for those contesting for the post of VP. However, prompted by Thakker, Patel took out a rally in the Faculty of Science shouting slogans against union president S R Pandya (known to have links with the Congress). This reporter was present when Thakker directed him to sit on an indefinite fast protesting against the `mismanagement' of administrative authorities. He called off the fast only after Pandya had accepted his position.

Gaekwad and city Congress president Narendra Rawat were no exception. In fact it was Rawat who went to convince Vice-Chancellor Anil Kane that elections should be called off and arrangements for fresh polls be made. When they found the authorities not obliging, Gaekwad instructed Rawat -- again, in the presence of this reporter -- that Congress-backed candidate Yogesh Patel should sit in front of the faculty.

And you thought university elections were about students' welfare!