Allahabad Uni Poll Violence: Rooms Gutted, Vehicles set Ablaze

Hostel rooms, clothes and belongings of new office bearers belonging to the NSUI and the SCS were set on fire.

(Photo Courtesy: NSUI)

After a bout of violence, the newly-elected office bearers of the Allahabad University Students Union were sworn in on Saturday, 6 October, amid tight police presence. The student wing of the Samajwadi Party swept the post of president and joint secretary, securing the top post with 774 votes.

Violence broke out at the university campus in the wee hours of Saturday, soon after the announcement of the results of the student union polls. Six-seven rooms of Holland hostel were set on fire, including those of Udai Prakash Yadav, of the Samajwadi Chatra Sabha, who is the new president of the union.

Mobs, allegedly of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) supporters, also torched vehicles and threw crude bombs, aside from setting rooms of the hostel building aflame.

According to IANS, fire tenders and senior district officials, including the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), had to rush in with reinforcements to calm the unruly mobs.

The results are being seen as a crude shock to the ruling BJP as its student wing lost the prestigious students union election.

According to The Hindu, the National Students' Union of India of the Congress sprung a surprise, clutching two seats, those of the vice-president and cultural secretary, in what is its best performance in over a decade. The student wing of the RSS-BJP, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, were restricted to a single seat, general secretary, which it also won in 2017.

Uday Prakash Yadav, a first-year law student from Deoria, alleged that police laxity had led to the incident. "This is not an ordinary incident. But the police administration is silent because the BJP, known for its misuse of government machinery, has induced a cracking defeat," said Uday Yadav, who is a first-year law student from Deoria.

Bikes and other vehicles were set on fire during the clashes.(Photo Courtesy: NSUI)

The Hindu also reported that the room of last year's president, Awanish Yadav, also of the SCS, was gutted. His car was set on fire and several motorbikes were also gutted. Police is probing the case and an FIR will be registered.

“According to our information, the people who were involved in the violence were the personal supporters of different presidential candidates. The supporters are not the members of ABVP, and if anybody is trying to blame ABVP for that, it’s a strategy to defame us. The ABVP condemns any kind of violence erupting in academic institutions.”

Monica Chaudhary, ABVP

Vehicles, equipment of students and supporters of office bearers were destroyed.(Photo Courtesy: NSUI)

Public Relations Officer (PRO) to SSP, Allahabad, Prince Dixit told IANS that the situation had slowly limping back to normalcy. There have been no arrests made so far. Some police officers were also injured in the violence.