The Kerala Students Union (KSU) on Monday opened a unit in University College after a hiatus of 18 years.
The Students Federation of India (SFI) had found itself in the back foot on the campus after its unit committee members became implicated in a near-fatal knife attack on another SFI activist, Akhil Chandran, on the campus on July 12.
KSU State president K.M. Abhijith, who is on the eighth day of his hunger strike, inaugurated the unit.
Seven-member panel
A seven-member committee led by president C. Amal Chandra and secretary S. Achuth entered the college under police escort on Monday. Arya and Aiswarya Joseph, vice-president and joint secretary respectively, accompanied them.
The police had thrown a security ring around the campus that reopened after massive anti-SFI protests forced the authorities to shut the college down.
The AISF, ABVP, MSF, Campus Front, Solidarity, MSF, and Fraternity have vowed to start their respective units in the college, reckoned a bastion of the SFI for long.
The police fear that any incident on the campus could set off ripples of violence on other campuses where rival student outfits are locked in stand-offs for political control. The situation portended class boycotts, street violence, and disruption of the academic calendar, an officer said.
Law enforcers have advised university college authorities to accord a shared space on the campus for students to indulge in political activity.
They have urged them to dissuade excessive use of party symbols and to erase political graffiti on classroom walls.
