FSU polls at Law and Ratna Rajya today

Kathmandu, March 29:

Nepal Humanities Campus, earlier known as Ratna Rajya College, and Nepal Law Campus at Exhibition Road will hold Free Students Union polls tomorrow.

Besides the traditional ways of seeking votes from the students, the candidates vying for different posts in the FSU have taken aid of SMS to woo the voters. “My message box has been filled by the SMS sent by the candidates. I received dozens of SMS from different candidates today alone,” said Sarita Bhandary, a student at NHC.

UML-affiliated All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU) had won all posts in the FSU at the NHC, while the NLC had a joint panel of ANNFSU and the Nepal Students Union in the previous election. However, a tripartite competition is expected at both the colleges this year, as some influential members of the ANNFSU have joined the Maoists’ student wing All Nepal National Independent Students Union-Revolutionary.

The FSU election in three colleges, including the Padma Kanya College, had been postponed following the clashes between the students on March 17, a day before the FSU polls.

However, FSU polls at Padma Kanya College have become uncertain after the joint panel of ANNISU-R, ANNFSU and ANNFSU-Unified declared to boycott the polls, putting forth several demands. The Padma Kanya College unit of ANNISU-R has decided to boycott the election, scheduled for tomorrow, accusing the college administration of failing to check the forged identity cards distributed by the NSU. It decided to boycott the polls also because the administration had failed to probe into the incident in which students were thrashed inside the Pragya hostel on March 17.

Ambika Bista of ANNFSU said her union would also boycott the election. “We won’t take part in any poll activity unless our demands are met,” Bista said.