Chandigarh/Hoshiarpur/Daljeet Ajnoha /Sept.1 — The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has retained the president’s post in the Panjab University Campus Students’ Council (PUCSC) elections for the second consecutive year, with its candidate Ankit Bidhan emerging victorious in a closely fought four-corner contest.
***Election result**
Bidhan, an ABVP candidate backed by the Shiromani Akali Dal’s student wing, Students Organisation of India (SOI), secured the presidency with 3,149 votes, defeating his nearest rival Aadil Singh Brar of the AAP-linked Association of Students for Alternative Politics (ASAP), who polled 2,637 votes. Congress-backed NSUI’s Gurman Singh Sidhu finished third with 2,263 votes, while SATH’s Darshpreet Singh got 1,387 votes. The overall voter turnout was 58.35 per cent, with 9,610 votes cast out of 16,468 registered voters.
**Alongside Bidhan** ABVP-SOI also swept the other top posts: Armaan Singh Bhinder won vice-president (3,322 votes), Dhyan Singh became secretary (4,045 votes), and Vishal Bamal took joint secretary (3,506 votes).
***Tikshan Sud’s reaction** Gen Z reaffirms “nationalist” thinking
Former Punjab Cabinet minister and senior BJP leader Tikshan Sud, who was himself associated with ABVP in his student days, welcomed the result as a sign that young voters are reaffirming faith in a “nationalist” outlook.
***Speaking on the outcome** Sud congratulated the ABVP teams in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, as well as the newly elected PUCSC president Ankit Bidhan. He described the victory as the result of ABVP’s “selfless service” for students and praised the “mature thinking” of the new generation.
Sud warned that some “separatist” outfits are trying to provoke the youth (Gen Z) to disturb the country’s atmosphere, but said the election result shows that students have once again demonstrated that India’s welfare lies in a nationalist approach rooted in the country’s culture and heritage. In his words, by giving the president’s post to the ABVP candidate by a large margin, the youth have again shown their commitment to this vision.
***Political significance**
The win is being seen as a significant political signal in Punjab ahead of future electoral battles, with the ABVP-SOI combine overcoming a strong anti-incumbency push and a campaign by rivals that focused on issues such as university administration neutrality and campus campaign restrictions. BJP leaders at the national level, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, have also congratulated ABVP on the result.
Bidhan, originally from Jind in Haryana, is a law student at Punjab University and has described the victory as not just his own but that of “Gen Z
