After three years, campus polls returns to Jadavpur University next January, a varsity official said.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the students’ welfare board of the university on Wednesday, two days after Presidency University officials met and decided to hold their campus polls on November 14.

The dean of students Rajat Ray said it was decided at the meeting that the election would be held in January next year. “The election advisory committee will meet in the second week of November. The dates of polls, schedule for online filing of nominations, publication of voter list, will be decided at that meeting,” said Ray.

When asked why the election could not be held in November like Presidency, a university official said that JU had several examinations scheduled in November and therefore was unable to hold polls then. “As the convocation is scheduled in December, we do not want to hold polls in that month. Traditionally we have held polls in the January. We will stick to that schedule,” said the official.

On October 17, the state government had given Jadavpur University, Presidency University, Rabindra Bharati University and Diamond Harbour Women’s University the liberty to hold student elections whenever they “deemed fit”.

The order had stated that these four universities “may hold the elections to the students’ union / students’ council as deemed fit”. When the higher education department had brought in The West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Composition, Functions and Procedure for Election of Students’ Council) Rules, 2017, it had imposed a stay on the campus election across campuses to quell violence.

As the students’ council would have several office-bearers selected by the heads of the institutions, the students of Jadavpur University and Presidency University had opposed the constitution of the council and demanded that they be allowed to have students’ union as earlier.

When JU students had met education minister Partha Chatterjee in August, they had raised the demand.

JU vice-chancellor Suranjan Das had earlier conveyed the students’ demand to the government and sought permission to hold the elections.

During his visit to JU on Friday, governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who is chancellor of the state universities, had said he was happy that “some process” had been initiated to conduct campus polls.

“But it has to go to all the universities,” he added.

Chatterjee later said that his department wanted to resume campus polls in other universities and colleges as soon as possible.

The officials of Rabindra Bharati University and Diamond Harbour Women’s University would soon hold meetings to discuss the election dates.