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Journalism of Courage
The winning alliance of four parties in Panjab University elections this year,shows the increasing trend of alliance politics seeping in. Major parties like SOPU and PUSU,seem to be losing ground as the smaller parties are increasingly playing an important role.
Though the SOPU alliance won all four seats in the student council this year,the seats were shared by SOI,HSA and SFI members. After PUSU announced its alliance with NSUI,SOPU had declared its alliance with SOI,HSA and SFI,in a bid to gain maximum votes. Though the SOPU leaders claimed that they would register a comfortable win,the victory margin decreased from 1,001 votes last year to about 530 votes this year.
The decreased margin by almost half of last years margin,was despite SOPU having three partners this year,as compared to only SOI as a partner last year. PUSU,on the other hand,had allied with ABVP and INSO the year before this,both of whom contested independently this year. In colleges,the alliances with NSUI,won a majority at many places. In the University and other city colleges,NSUI,which is the student faction of Congress,had remained almost non-existent in previous years.
PUSU was the single largest party in the University since elections started here in 1977,after which the elections were stopped in 1984,due to internal disturbances in the country,especially in this region. Later,elections were restarted in 1997,after about 14 years. There was a rift between the members of PUSU and SOPU was formed by DPS Randhawa then. He contested the elections and was president of the student council for the next two years (1998-2000).
Alliance politics began in PU during his tenure for the 1999-2000 elections. That year SOPU had allied with SFI and won. PUSU allied for the first time much later,in 2005,with HSA and won the elections,with Amandeep Singh becoming the president the president. Even after elections were restarted in 1997,and there was major competition in the form of SOPU and its allies,PUSU managed four victories and suffered three loses,without any alliance.
According to senior leaders there are various reasons for the gradual increase in alliances. Some say that the students are becoming more aware of options and are thinking more in terms of ideologies and who offers a better option for them,unlike just being swayed by party names,as what used to happen in the past. The importance of regional politics seem to be decreasing,and students are focusing on the candidate rather than the parties.
On the other hand,some party leaders say that regional politics and factionalism is beginning to play an ever bigger role. Students are,therefore,voting for parties other than the two biggies in PU. This makes it necessary to include more parties in the alliances.
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