Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Saturday led a delegation of student representatives of three Uttar Pradesh-based central universities in a meeting with HRD Minister Kapil Sibal to demand holding of students’ union elections.

Gandhi, who reached Sibal’s official residence in the morning, was accompanied by students from the Benaras Hindu University (BHU), Allahabad University and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

“The students, along with Rahul Gandhi met me and explained the aspirations of students that they should be integral part of democratic process of the universities to take forward academic excellence…their concerns were taken into account…,” Sibal told reporters after the meeting.

To a question on the response of his ministry, he said “…We certainly feel that students should be an integral part of the democratic processes of the universities (and) those concerns would definitely be conveyed to the universities concerned so that the universities themselves can take the agendas of the community forward by listening to the voices of the younger generation.”

While there had been no union elections in the BHU since 1997, elections in the Allahabad University and the AMU were last held in 2004 and 2007 respectively.

Students union elections have not been held in BHU since the violent incidents on 20th February, 1997 when at least two students were killed in the central university campus during the introductory speech of candidates for that year’s student union polls.

The Allahabad University too had witnessed violence during students union elections.

The Mayawati government had banned students union elections in UP in 2007 but the ban was lifted in March 2008.