Author: Amit Ukil and Biswanath Roy
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: December 22, 2014
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1141223/jsp/frontpage/story_4866.jsp#.VJkCnsAKA

One swallow does not a summer make but when the RSS cub opens its account in Bengal's campus elections, the big cats are certain to pause and ponder.

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Sangh, today snatched the students' union in a Purulia College from the Trinamul Chhatra Parishad. The ABVP also bagged the highest number of seats in another college in the district.

This is the first solo victory of the ABVP in an academic institution in Bengal, a state whose campuses were once known as the cradle of Left politics.

Although campus election results - that too in two colleges in one district - cannot be considered a foolproof barometer of the public mood, the outcomes in colleges in the state have largely reflected the political shift outside the academic fences.

The Opposition has been alleging that many college elections in the state have gone Trinamul's way since 2011 because students are not allowed to contest and vote freely. Against such a backdrop, the ABVP's maiden victory stands out.

ABVP leaders said the win was "sweeter" because several of the victorious class representatives at Lalpur Mahatma Gandhi College in Purulia's Hura were from the Muslim community.

Abdul Halim Ansari, the president of the ABVP unit in the government-aided Lalpur college, said: "Out of the 21 seats contested, we won 13 and seven of them are Muslim."

Lalpur is a big village, located around 32km from Purulia town. A majority of its population belongs to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes communities who depend on farming.

A former principal of the college said that it was set up in 1981 with the objective of giving youngsters from the tribal and backward communities a chance at higher education.

Although the college union was run by the Left since its inception, the Trinamul wing took over two years ago.

"There have been allegations that some union leaders had accepted money for admissions... Besides, the lack of development in the area has also backfired against the Trinamul students' wing," said a professor in the college.

The performance of ABVP candidates from the minority community is expected to be cited by the BJP to contest the Trinamul allegation that the Sangh parivar is polarising people along religious lines.

A surge in the support for the BJP in parts of the minority-dominated areas in Birbhum has already prompted suggestions that religion need not always be the sole or dominant factor in individual choices.

At Achhuram Memorial College in Jhalda, a few kilometres from Jharkhand - the ABVP won 10 of the 23 seats and has emerged as the single largest entity.

"The Trinamul students' wing has got seven seats and the Congress's outfit has five.... There is a possibility that the student wings of the Trinamul and the Congress may join hands to form the union. So, we don't know whether the union will belong to us. But whatever be the final outcome, we are happy with the performance," said Kishore Burman, state organising secretary of the ABVP.

Until now, the ABVP had run a students' union in Bengal only once - at Kalinagar College in North 24-Parganas. But the ABVP had fought the election then in alliance with the Chhatra Parishad of the Congress.

Most of the 450-plus colleges across the state have Trinamul-run student bodies. Although the ABVP had units in some colleges for years, it has rarely won more than one or two class representative elections.

Following the rise in the BJP's vote share in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in the state, the ABVP has launched an expansion drive across the state and at present it has units in 348 colleges.

The results of the student union elections in the two Purulia colleges - which come under Sidho-Kanho University - spread cheer at Keshav Bhavan, the state RSS headquarters on Beadon Street in north Calcutta.

"Out of the 17 Purulia colleges where elections were held today, we could contest in only five colleges as the ruling party tried to intimidate our supporters. The performance is stellar to say the least.... We will be bagging the unions in more colleges in the coming election season," said Burman, the state organising secretary of the ABVP.

The college election season started today and will continue till January 31.

Ashok Rudra, the state president of the TMCP, said the results in the two colleges did not mean much as there was an anti-Trinamul alliance.

But sources in the parent party said the results should be seen as a wake-up call.