Richa Gupta, a second-year student of Presidency College’s English department, was elected the general secretary of the college union, the first woman to hold the post in the last two decades.

The SFI had won the students elections at Presidency College on Wednesday. Ratnesh Sukla, a second-year student of Hindi department, was elected as the assistant general secretary.

Gupta, a resident of Jamshedpur, said the office-bearers will try to revive the dysfunctional students’ union, ensure maintenance of the campus and maintain proper teacher-student ratio in the college.

“We have to be in touch with the authorities and keep pressing for students’ demands so that they are seriously taken into consideration,” said an office-bearer of the union.

The SFI had won 38 class representative seats, with Independent Consolidation (IC) managing 34. The IC boycotted the formation of the student panel on Friday. “We boycotted the event as a mark of protest against the use of administrative machinery in the polls,” said an IC representative.

“This is a poor gesture from the IC,” said Richa, adding that she will ensure there is no partiality on the ground of political affiliation of a student.