The Nirvik Bureau, Bhubaneswar, 18 October 2026
Democracy returns to campus after eight years; students advised not to interrupt the victory celebrations with student issues.
One Election, Two Landslides
Odisha’s student elections have produced a historic result: everybody important has won, except arithmetic.
Of 337 presidents’ posts, the ABVP reportedly secured around 141, the BCJD nearly 120, and the NSUI around 30. Independents took the rest, presumably because some students misunderstood the exercise and voted for people they knew.
The BJP declared victory. The BJD declared victory. Mathematics applied for a migration certificate.
The Higher Education Department had not released a consolidated party-wise tally. This was considerate. An official count might have interrupted several perfectly functioning mandates.
In Odisha, democracy does not mean accepting what voters said. It means reaching the microphone before anyone asks what they meant.
Your Youth, Under Experienced Management
The elections returned after eight years, giving students the opportunity to exercise their democratic rights under the close supervision of politicians who apparently feared they might exercise them incorrectly.
Senior leaders helped select candidates. Party colours decorated campuses. There were lavish meals, SUV rallies and enough adult supervision to make an undergraduate election resemble a cabinet expansion.
The student was finally empowered: free to choose between competing organisations that had already chosen everything else.
“Today’s youth must think independently,” announced a veteran leader, pointing towards the approved candidate.
A student attempted to mention hostel conditions but was gently redirected towards the larger question of civilisation.
Nation First, Attendance Later
For the BJP, the results demonstrated that young people stood firmly with its ideological project.
This was an impressive amount of information to extract from a college president’s election. Earlier generations merely chose someone who might negotiate with the principal. Today’s student must settle the nation’s destiny before collecting a library clearance slip.
At Utkal University, the ABVP’s seven-of-nine performance offered ample material for celebration.
Somewhere beneath the ideological fireworks, a student probably still wanted a functioning laboratory.
Unfortunately, laboratory equipment had not issued a statement congratulating the party.
Naveen Discovers the Next Generation
For the BJD, the results confirmed that Naveen Patnaik remained deeply embedded in the hearts of Gen Z.
The party that had governed during the long suspension of campus elections now celebrated the democratic spirit of students with the tenderness of a landlord praising tenants for surviving the locked staircase.
Its message was clear: the youth had spoken, and, remarkably, sounded exactly like the party press release.
The BCJD’s sweep at Rama Devi Women’s University became proof of renewal.
Students had elected representatives. Senior politicians had discovered a resurrection.
Results at 2.40 a.m.; Bright Future Pending
At Rama Devi, results arrived at 2.40 a.m., after protests and tension.
Nothing prepares young people for public life quite like discovering that transparency keeps nightclub hours.
Congress’s NSUI finished a distant third, preserving the party’s commitment to observing history from a manageable distance.
Meanwhile, the original question remained: whose side are Odisha’s students on?
Nobody appeared interested in asking them.
There were victory processions to organise, photographs to upload and an entire generation to claim.
The students could submit their demands later.
Preferably through the proper party channel.
