Students' bodies polls not held in Punjab since 1983

PATIALA: Assembly elections resumed in Punjab in 1985 after Operation Bluestar and polls for local bodies were revived after chief minister Beant Singh-led Congress came to power in 1992, but elections to the student bodies in state's universities and colleges are still banned for the last three decades.
Punjab is the only state witnessing dichotomy where elections are suspended in over a 100 colleges affiliated to Panjab University (PU), while elections are held on the varsity campus for students' council in Chandigarh and its colleges in UT every year since 1997.Punjabi University, Patiala, and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar are the other two universities to which most of the colleges of the state are affiliated.
Yograj, who was elected secretary of Punjabi University Students Union in 1983, said that the last students' elections were held in 1983 after which all forms of elections were suspended in the state.
"Although the Centre, through Rajiv-Longowal Accord, had resumed assembly elections in Punjab in 1985, all other polls, including those for panchayats, zila parishads and block samitis remained suspended. The then CM Beant Singh conducted first local bodies elections after he assumed power in 1992. However, students' elections have remained an exception, which were never revived even after mid-1990s when normalcy returned to Punjab."
Till mid-1970s, class representatives (CRs) would vote for election of college student's union president. However, the pattern changed after Emergency and new pattern of direct elections for president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary was introduced in the late 1970s, which remained in practice till 1983, said sources.