With the Academic Council (AC) of Allahabad University  approving the newly formulated regulations on the basis of which the elections for student union would be conducted at AU, all eyes are focused on the intricacies of these new regulations which would make a candidate eligible or ineligible for contesting the elections.

According to Point Three of clause mentioning the eligibility criteria for the candidates, every student of AU will get just one opportunity throughout his stay as a bonafide student of AU to contest for the post of an office-bearer and shall have two opportunities for the post of executives. This means that once any student has contested the election for any given post of the office-bearer, he/she cannot contest the election again irrespective of the fact that he/she wins or loses the elections for the said post. This also implies that every year the campus would have new faces contesting the elections for the post of five office-bearers, i.e., the president, vice-president, general secretary, joint secretary and cultural secretary.

Apart from this, only those students who have been earlier elected or nominated as the executive members would be eligible for contesting the elections for the post of office-bearers.

Many of the aspirants, who have been actively involved in pressurizing the varsity administration to accept their demand for holding the elections, are contesting these criteria and terming it as undemocratic. AU sources informed TOI that since the Ordinance of AU clearly states that the elections could be held only on the condition that it strictly adheres to recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee report, varsity authorities do not have any option but to follow Point 6.5.6 of the said report which makes this condition mandatory.

Similarly, many of the aspirants are anxious to know as to what would be the criteria pertaining to Point Four of the same clause which talks of candidates having previous criminal record, etc. It reads, "The candidate shall not have a previous criminal record, that is to say he/she shall not have been tried and or convicted of any criminal offence or misdemeanor. The candidate shall also not have been subjected to any disciplinary action by the varsity authorities...."

This point specially sets the heart palpitating of those students who have been actively involved in various agitations and protests on the campus for the past couple of months. This includes students like Abhishek Yadav, Vivekanand Pathak, Vikas and Raghvendra among others. According to highly placed sources at AU, these students would probably be able to contest the elections as they have not been convicted in any criminal cases. On the issue that they candidate shall also not have been subjected to any disciplinary action by the varsity authorities, these students stand fair chances as although they have been given show cause notices by the varsity administration, either the inquiry is pending or they have not have been subjected to any disciplinary action.

Another issue pertains to the cutoff date of the age limit of the candidates which according to new regulations is 22 for the UG student, 23 and 24 years for the students of professional courses, 25 years for LLB students, 26 years for MTech and Med, 28 for LLM and 30 for research students. This bears importance as many of the forerunners like Abhishek, who is pursuing LLB from AU and attaining the age of 25 years on January 26, this year, would be able to contest the elections or not.

Sources informed TOI that the cutoff date for the age eligibility would be the date of nominations which would be clear once the regulations are approved by the Executive Council (EC) and AU authorities declares the election schedule.

The regulations also mention that every candidate would be permitted expenditure of Rs 5,000 only and submit the account of his expenditure within two days of the declarations of result. Moreover, the candidate is not permitted to use any printed material for canvassing as they can use only hand written material including poster pamphlets etc. All candidates are jointly responsible for cleaning of the entire polling area within 48 hours of the conclusion of polling.

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* AU authorities would hold the meeting of the EC on January 21 wherein the amended regulations would be placed as reporting item

* AU administration is likely to announce the name of the returning officer for the elections by January 17 (coming Monday or Tuesday) who would shortly announce the detail election programme in the coming days and the registrar issuing the notification for the same

* The date of nominations could be before the Republic Day

* The entire election would conclude by February 10