Candidates spent just Rs 55,000 during PU polls: Observers

Even as student parties splurged lakhs of rupees on the Panjab University Campus Students’ Council (PUCSC) elections, the final report submitted by 10 observers of PU have concluded that all candidates spent a cumulative amount of merely Rs 55,000 in the one week of electioneering.

The report prepared by the observers was submitted to dean, student welfare, Navdeep Goyal on Wednesday. The observers were appointed for the first time by PU and were monitoring expenses of candidates and panels.

The observers have concluded that highest spenders were candidates of NSUI alliance at Rs 17,680 followed by SOI alliance candidates at Rs 17,360. According to the report, the third major spenders were PUSU alliance candidates with Rs 16,760 followed by ABVP Rs 11,230 and Students for Society (SFS) candidate spent only Rs 740.

Goyal said these figures included candidates’ spending on tents, rallies and stickers etc.

When asked about police report on freebies, he said, “We have not received any report yet. Let me see first what they have written and what evidences are there. We will comment about their report once we receive it.”

Candidates supported by these parties are yet to submit their expenditure details.

According to the Lyngdoh panel’s guidelines for student council polls, a candidate can only spend up to Rs 5,000 for campaigning. Each alliance had four candidates and the upper limit for their spending was Rs 20,000.

The media reports had quoted a senior police official claiming that the police had written a letter to PU and submitted a report which mentioned freebies such as free trips, coupons to saloons, parties at clubs, alcohol and renting cars for poll campaigning. According to reports, the police had also submitted details of a Sector 34-based bus operator that took students on trips to Kasauli and Shimla and free liquor distributed during parties arranged by different student bodies in city clubs.