Victory in school, college elections is the student community’s reply to the State government and the Kerala Students’ Union (KSU), the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has said.

At a press conference here on Saturday, SFI State secretary P.S. Sanjeev said the students had shown that resisting Sangh Parivar forces by standing firm on secular positions was right for the State. The SFI had registered massive wins in the elections after facing the Governor, Vice-Chancellors, police, government, and jail.

He alleged that the V.D. Satheesan-led government was adopting a fascist approach of threatening those who did not kowtow to it. Its attempt was to use the police to jail the SFI leadership and suppress the activists to create a situation favourable to the KSU in the elections. However, the students had realised that the SFI was with them for reacting to issues such as the Jantar Mantar protests, NEET exam irregularities, and non-availability of textbooks.

He rejected Congress leader V.T. Balram’s claim that a banner held by students who had won elections had been forced on them by a student organisation. The election results were a protest against policies of the State government that suppressed democratic protests by students.

Mr. Sanjeev said legal steps would be taken for conducting elections in colleges where these were postponed. Strong protests would be organised against the bid to ban campus politics, he said.