Former KSU secretary shoots off mail to Rahul

KOZHIKODE: The factional fight among senior leaders in the Congress is reflecting in its student organisation with a former KSU state general secretary shooting off a letter to Rahul Gandhi, alleging that malpractices were committed by former Youth Congress president T Siddique while preparing the voters list for the upcoming KSU elections on February 14 and 15.M Dhanishlal, who is the present vice-president of the Kozhikode district committee of the KSU, has alleged in the letter that Siddique had included bogus names in the voters list for 13 colleges.“We have procured proof from the principals of these 13 colleges, which showed that most of the names in the voters list for these colleges are fake and names of those who are not studying in these colleges are included in the list. For the past one month, T Siddique has also been going directly to colleges and threatening KSU workers,” said the letter.The current election model adopted by the National Students Organisation of India (NSUI), which is the parent body of the KSU, states that college units with at least 50 members are eligible to vote in the upcoming organisational elections. These units will elect 10 nominees who will have a vote each in the election of both the district president and the state president of the KSU. Dhanishlal claimed that the 13 colleges, in which bogus members have allegedly been added, do not have the required number of members to be considered in the list."By including voters from these colleges, Siddique has effectively swung 130 votes in the race for both the district president and the state president,” he said. Dhanishlal said that he had downloaded copies of the voters list from the NSUI website and sent them to principals of various colleges for verification.“In some colleges like the DMA College in Puthuppadi, not even a single member in the voters list is a student of that college while in the JDT College, Adoor, only three in the given list were students,” he said.He also added that he did not feel the need to approach any  leader in the state unit of the Congress as they had nothing do with the KSU. No response had yet been received from Rahul Gandhi’s office, he added.KSU Elections from February 14KOCHI: The elections to the Kerala Students’ Union (KSU) state and district committees will be held in three phases in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode zones from February 14.The elections in Kasargod, Kannur, Kozhikode, Waynad, Malappuram and Palakkad districts which fall in the Kozhikode zone will be held on February 14. Thrissur, Ernakulam, Idukki, Kottayam and Alappuzha districts in the Ernakulam zone will have elections on February 15.The elections to Thiruvananthapuram zone comprising Pathanamthitta, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram districts will be held on February 16. The counting will be held on February 16 in Thiruvananthapuram, where the new KSU state president and the elected leadership at various levels of the organisation will be declared. As a prelude to the state elections, elections were completed in 630 colleges. More than 5,200 student representatives have been elected, who will be voting for the state and district leadership.