Rajasthan University ABVP Ex-President in a tête-à-tête on his memorable presidency and election campaigning

Former president of the Rajasthan University (RU), Mr. Vimal Choudhary was in a tête-à-tête recently and shared personal and professional experiences and memoirs of his life, memoirs of his ex-presidency and beyond.

No royal campaigning – campaigning on bicycles – Jeep, a royal item for campaigning back then

Mr. Vimal states that years back there were no cars available for him to campaign around in a royal fashion.
The sources and means were limited.
He along with 15 of his friends took off on their bicycles and rode around the college campus and other colleges nearby to campaign around and about.
If the group managed to procure an old rustic jeep, it was considered meeting luck.
Getting a jeep made all things and tasks easy for the election campaigning process.

Choosing subject gold medalists for campaigning about self to the masses

To campaign around, out main motive and aim was to find students who were gold medalists in their own subjects.
The reason behind this carefully thought about objective was because students were influenced by the gold medalists and their decision was influenced by the decision and behaviour of the gold medalist students.

Some subject gold medalists’ supporters:

“S.P. Gupta (Indian Administrative Service Officer), Anil Kaushik (Retired DG Officer, Punjab) and Arvind Mayaram (Indian Administrative Service Officer) also made an appeal to the people to vote for me”, as Mr. Vimal shared. These people were gold medalists in their subjects’ years back.

Debate and its credits were useful for electoral campaigning:

A debate was systematized in every college in those times, which had credit points of its own to reward. These credit points helped one in increasing the chances of their victory in the elections.

Final victory in the elections – President Vimal Choudhary

On November 23, 1973 Mr. Vimal became the president of the ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) for the very first time. At that time, Mr. Haridev Joshi was elected as the chief minister of the state of Rajasthan.
To hear one’s own name on the All India Radio and to hear about one’s own victory was a moment of accomplishment.

Paintings were a thing:

When it came to campaigning, paintings was an idea that surpassed the posters and banners. Some friends of Mr. Vimal as he expresses were talented and had a fine hand on paintings.
These friends designed paintings for the campaigning for Mr. Vimal as a candidate for elections.

Paintings with attractive illustrations and catchy text:

These paintings carried murals of a cartoon like Mickey Mouse, women from the rural areas, birds etc.
The murals were accompanied with texts and callouts saying, ‘Sunte Ho Ji, Aapko Adhyaksh Pad Ke Liye Inher Vote Dena Hai’.
Some paintings were shown with the electoral candidate riding a horse.
Some other paintings read catchy captions like ‘Thehro, Mujhe Toh Ravi Ko Vote Dene Jaana Hai’.
These eye catching paintings actually drove people and motivated them to vote.

Present university elections scenario:

It has been seen at present that the voting percentage in the University is on a constant decline.

We had the feeling of social service, not of becoming an MLA or an MP:

Mr. Vimal expresses that when in the year 1973 he stood up for the elections, he was filled with the feeling of social service and not with a hidden greed of becoming an MLA or an MP.
Mr. Vimal before standing up for the University elections previously worked as a clerk in the University premises and as a bank official too in a bank.
Leaving behind and aside this, he stood up as an electoral candidate and was successful in winning the elections and then becoming the president too.

Present day university election scenario: A chaos, a greedy mess

During the period when the college and the university brim with election buzz, policemen are on duty in a heavy number in and around the college and university.
Cars of high end MLAs and MPs are seen to run about the campus often in that time period.
The college administration and management also send a notice to electoral candidates numerous times all this while. The whole city is in a mess of the electoral hoardings and banners.
It seems as though these electoral positions are fought for by the candidates merely for a status symbol and not for performing social service.