India, Nov. 27 -- After weeks of entrenched protest at Panjab University in Chandigarh, the Vice President of India, as the PU chancellor, has approved the dates for elections to the PU senate to be held next year.

The elections for various constituencies of the senate, which is PU's primary decision-making body, will be held between September 9 and October 4, 2026, officials said on Thursday.

This was a main pending demand of the protesters after the central government rolled back its decision to downsize the senate and abolish much of its election process. PM Narendra Modi's government had to restore the decades-old election system fully after massive protests went beyond the issue of PU's autonomy alone, and saw it as a "challenge to...