Ankit Bidhan, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) candidate, has been elected president of the Panjab University Campus Students’ Council (PUCSC), defeating his nearest rival Aadil Singh Brar of the AAP-backed Association of Students for Alternative Politics (ASAP) by 512 votes.
Bidhan secured 3,149 votes, while Brar received 2,637 votes. Congress’ student wing NSUI candidate Gurman Singh Sidhu finished third with 2,263 votes, while Sath candidate Darshpreet Singh received 1,387 votes. NOTA received 174 votes.
The election was held on August 31 and saw a four-way contest for the president’s post. A total of 16 candidates contested different posts in the students’ council elections.
Bidhan is a research scholar at Panjab University and originally hails from Jind in Haryana and before becoming a research scholar, he pursued law at the Department of Laws at Panjab University. He is associated with ABVP and has been an active member of the organisation since 2021.
ABVP had announced Bidhan as its presidential candidate for the 2026 PUCSC elections on August 22 and at the time, the organisation said he had been working on issues related to students and their welfare.
His victory is significant for ABVP because the organisation has now retained the president’s post at Panjab University for two consecutive years. ABVP had won the top post for the first time last year, ending a long wait for the organization, and now the back-to-back victory makes this the first time ABVP has won the PUCSC president’s post in consecutive elections.
The presidential contest involved candidates representing different political student groups. Bidhan contested on the ABVP ticket, while Aadil Brar represented ASAP, Gurman Singh Sidhu contested for NSUI and Darshpreet Singh represented Sath.
A day before polling, the Student Organisation of India (SOI), the student wing of the Shiromani Akali Dal, announced its support for Bidhan and the support came shortly before voting and became an important part of the election arithmetic.
The final result gave Bidhan a 512-vote lead over Brar. His total of 3,149 votes was also higher than the combined votes received by several of his rivals individually, with Brar finishing second and NSUI’s Sidhu third.
The president’s post was won by Bidhan, but the remaining top positions went to candidates from other groups.
Armaan Singh Bhinder of PUDF won the vice-president’s post, while independent candidates Dhyan Singh and Vishal Bamal won the secretary and joint secretary posts respectively.
Polling began at 9:30 am, with counting starting at noon, and police were deployed on the campus during the election process.
With his victory, Ankit Bidhan will now head the Panjab University Campus Students’ Council for the new term, with the result also giving ABVP its second consecutive victory in the university’s top student leadership post.