Factional feuds put TMC students’ wing on backfoot

With factional clashes putting the Trinamool Congress on the backfoot, the students' wing of the party (Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad) has started losing ground in colleges.

Students' elections in colleges have started and the colleges have witnessed only 1 to 2 per cent voter turnout. This is believed to be largely due to clashes within the TMCP.

For instance, in Vivekanada College in Burdwan, where student polls were held yesterday, 47 of 4,000 students cast their votes. There are 38 seats in the college, but 79 candidates were fielded by TMCP. According to college sources, three factions of TMCP fielded candidates, while SFI could not file any nomination.

Ironically, the 79 candidates who were fielded could not reach the college to cast their own votes and the college authorities recorded a total of 47 votes polled.

Similarly, in Burdwan Women's College, where the election was on Tuesday, there were 3000 students but eight votes were polled. Of 25 seats in which TMC fielded their candidates, in 17 seats TMC won uncontested as no nomination was filed. In eight seats, two factions of TMC fielded candidates. The other candidates did not reach college to vote.

Nurul Hassan, TMCP secretary of Burdwan, said, "There are certain issues in our organisations and some students are divided over those issues. But we are trying to sort them out soon."

Madhuja Sen Roy, state president of SFI, said, "We were not allowed to file nominations in most colleges where elections were held. However, we know the TMCP members are also not able to cast their votes due to the unprecedented terror in the campus."

She added, "In all the campuses, there are more than two factions. Students are confused as to which faction to vote for. We have seen the same picture in Katwa College, Andul College in Howrah and Koonagar college in Hooghly."

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