IIT Kharagpur will hold elections of its students’ council over digital platforms on July 26.

Bhargab Maitra, a professor of the institute who has been appointed election officer, has issued a notice to announce that the elections would be held between 9am and 6pm through a specialised digital platform.

The platform would be developed on the institute’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) portal.

Since the elections will be held digitally, videos of the candidates explaining their proposals will be put on the official Technology Students Gymkhana (TSG) website and TSG Facebook page.

The proposals will be posted after verification by the election officer.

The students have been asked to join their relevant Google groups to get updates on the nomination and election process.

All the election related notifications will be published on the website and the Facebook page developed for the purpose of elections.

The TSG website will also provide details on how to file the nominations.

The election was held last on the campus in 2019.

Over the past 14 months a nominated council was operating as the students’ body.

Now the institute will have an elected council.

An official of the institute said since the classes and the exams were being successfully held on digital platforms over the past 16 months, they wanted to conduct elections over this platform. “An elected students’ body represents the opinion of students effectively. A nominated students’ council handpicked by the authorities cannot do that...,” the official said.

All the students enrolled with IIT Kharagpur till May 1, 2021 will be eligible to vote for their respective candidates.

After the submission of proposals, the institute will create an online platform called soap-box, where the aspirants for the posts of vice-president and general secretaries will address the electorate on July 23 and 24 regarding their candidature.