Student Union Polls To Be Held Soon Across West Bengal: Suvendu Adhikari

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday said student union elections would soon be held across colleges and universities in the state, amid demands from the opposition and other quarters for conducting the polls.

Student union polls have not been held across much of the state's higher education sector during the 15-year tenure of the previous Trinamool Congress government. "Student union elections will be held soon. I am confident that the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) will win everywhere.

Saffron flags will flutter in colleges," Adhikari told reporters after an event outside the Jadavpur University (JU) here. The ABVP is an RSS-affiliated students' organisation. Opposition parties have repeatedly called for holding student union polls in colleges and universities.

The demand gained fresh momentum following recent clashes among student groups at several higher educational institutions, including the JU. During a programme earlier in the day, Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, Ritabrata Banerjee, alleged that the BJP government was not taking any initiative to hold student union elections, and demanded immediate polls in all colleges and universities in the state.

"The government must clearly state whether elections to the student unions will be held or not," he had said. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)