Kathmandu, March 2:

The fever of Free Students Union (FSU) election in campuses under TU and MSU is almost over. Results of the election in most of the campuses have already come out. The FSU elections showed that the student organisations, despite having different ideological background, could come to a common platform for the cause of democracy. But at the same time, with mixed panels elected in most of the campuses there are doubts whether the FSUs will remain functional, as the outgoing FSUs, which had mixed composition could not do well for student welfare.

Most of the campuses saw mixed panel elected in FSUs with representation of ANNFSU, NSU, NSU-D, ANNFSU (Unified) and other student unions.

Having mixed panels in FSUs did not prove good news during the last tenure of FSUs. TU central campus, for example, had a mixed panel. Conflict among FSU members representing different organisations led to controversies and even the burning of FSU office last year. In many cases, the FSU could not hold regular meetings, while the FSU faced difficulties passing decisions due to the lack of majority of a single student organision in the FSU.

In order to address the problem of non-functioning of FSUs, there is a need to make some amendment in the FSU statute as it was formulated with a mindset that solo panels will win the FSU election. The trend of mixed panel getting elected began twoyears ago when student unions decided to contest the polls in a friendly manner.

Rajendra Rai, former ANFNSU president, said FSU elections were politically 100 per cent successful and the alliance of eight student unions for a common goal of democracy is praiseworthy. "The leadership should now be very careful not to let the alliance break," said Rai.

Despite claims from student leaders that they will work in friendly manner in the future as well, one can only hope but not depend on these claims as the past record is too bad with student unions clashing over very minor issues.

In the election, ANNFSU remained successful in most campuses outside the valley but it lost in most of valley campuses where it had a strong hold in the past. To name a few, ANNFSU lost at Mahendra Ratna Campus for the first time in history and Patan Multiple Campus, Engineering Campus, Mahargunj Nursing Campus, Koteshwor Campus, Gramin Adarsha and Thapathali Campus also went out of its hands.

The ANNFSU also saw disgruntled factions in many campuses including Sarsawoti and RR Campus. This is the first time that internal conflict in ANNFSU came to the light.

"Major reasons for ANNFSU losing in various valley campuses are overconfidence, poor internal management and alliance of NSU and NSU-D," said Rai.

In this election, personal influence dominated institutional one. For example, Bhim Shris of NSU was elected FSU president at TU central campus while all ot-her posts went to ANNFSU.

An NSU leader said on condition of anonymity that reason behind NSU not being able to perform well outside the valley was lack of discipline, intra-organisation fraction and excessive central interference while providing tickets.

Meanwhile, eight student unions today took out a joint victory rally from Min Bhawan and ended in a corner meet at Maitighar. The student leaders said the FSU results were a good sign for democratic movement and they would fight for creating conducive educational environment.