PATNA: The campaign for Patna University students' union (
PUSU) election has gone high-tech owing to ceiling imposed on expenses to be incurred by individual candidates.
Student organizations as well as individual candidates are making full use of the internet and cellphones to reach nearly 20,000 voters in different colleges and postgraduate departments of the university. WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter among others are being used extensively to reach out to the voters for the election scheduled for February 17.
All India Students' Federation (AISF), All India Students' Association (AISA),
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Chhatra
Janata Dal (U), Chhatra RJD and National Students' Union of India (NSUI) have displayed the list of their candidates contesting the election with an appeal to vote for them. These organizations, besides scores of independent candidates, are working overtime to reach maximum number of voters over cellphones.
Texts drafted especially for the election campaign are also doing the rounds. "Today majority of the students carry cellphones and sms is the best way of personal contact for electioneering," said an aspirant for the post of president.
According to an AISF leader, "We try to meet each voter personally, but when it is not possible, we contact them over phone. Facebook and other social networking sites help us reach a large number of students easily."
However, several other candidates are still banking on their personal contacts with the voters and adopting the traditional campaigning techniques. They are moving from one institution to the other and meeting voters personally.
Besides, student organizations are holding meetings in different colleges, releasing their election manifesto and appealing for votes. Since the use of printed posters and banners as well as loudspeakers has been banned during campaigning, many candidates have reportedly hired the services of some professional artists to prepare beautifully-designed posters to be used in canvassing. These are photocopied and pasted at strategic locations in different colleges and departments on the PU campus. All colleges have earmarked space for sticking posters of contesting candidates.
Representative image
