A group of pro-Trinamul Congress employees of Kalyani University who were holding protests had to backtrack when some scholars asked them to leave the varsity's 30th convocation venue in Nadia's Kalyani on Thursday.

The employees were against holding the convocation under interim vice-chancellor Amalendu Bhunia and had been spearheading an agitation since Tuesday. The protest compelled the Kalyani University authorities to postpone the event on Wednesday night.

But later in the night, governor C.V. Ananda Bose, ignoring the purported “postponement” notification, directed the vice-chancellor to organise the event as scheduled on Thursday and asked the Nadia administration to make necessary arrangements for his visit.

Finding no way to stop the convocation, a section of the University employees led by Trinamul's Sikshabandhu Samiti and outsiders allegedly began threatening officials, teachers, and students. They were asked not to attend the event. But the employees had to face strong protests from the recipients of degrees who asked them to leave the convocation venue in “bigger interest”.

This led to an altercation with around 200 recipients asking the Trinamul-led faction to leave the venue so that they could receive their much-awaited degrees from the governor, who arrived at the campus to confer the degrees and ran into protest by a section of the employees.

In the face of protest by the scholarship, the Samiti members left the venue.

The last convocation was held in 2018 and conferring degrees of a few hundred students remained pending for the last five years.

Sreenanda Palit, a 2019 pass out of the folklore department and Ph.D. recipient, was the first to protest.

“I have been waiting for the past four years for the coveted certificate. I work with NIFT, but could not so far submit my certificate….Now some people asked me to leave the campus,” Palit said.

Bipul Chandra Mondal, of the rural development department who had come to receive his PhD, echoed Palit.

“Over a thousand passed out students waiting for their degree certificate for over past five years. Now when the opportunity came, some people for their political interest tried to force us out of the venue which we protested,” Mondal said.

Sikshabandhu Samiti president Anjan Dutta said: “We did not force anybody to leave, rather requested all to abstain from the convocation, which we think was organized illegally by the governor using his power.”

Vice-chancellor Bhunia said: “There was nothing illegal. But there were several hindrances and we were compelled to make it a low-key affair for obvious reasons”.

In his convocation speech, Bose urged to make “Bengal ahead of others”. Around 629 students were given PhD and 126 received medals at the event.

Speaking to reporters, Bose said “talks” were on between him and the chief minister as suggested by the Supreme Court.

“There is no conflict…absolutely no issue as far as the university administration is concerned,” Bose said.

“Those who create problems on the campus will be dealt with as per law and no one will be allowed to intimidate VCs, professors and students. Any miscreants entering the campus will be dealt with severely,” he added.