Overview
- KPCC chief and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar named a nine-member committee on December 27 to study modalities for reinstating student union elections after a 36-year ban.
- Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil is the convenor, with members including Higher Education Minister M C Sudhakar, MLAs, MLCs, and the state presidents of the Youth Congress and NSUI.
- The panel will examine whether contests should be party-based, ideology-driven, or non-political, alongside stages of polling, eligibility rules, costs, transparency, grievance redressal, and security.
- Its brief also covers representation and inclusion, including possible quotas for women, marginalized communities, and students with disabilities, plus the tenure of unions without disrupting academics.
- Student polls were barred in 1989 under Chief Minister Veerendra Patil after reported campus violence and rising party influence, and the current review is an internal party exercise rather than a government decision to lift the ban.