Chandigarh, Aug. 29 -- In a major shift from recent years, six out of the eight candidates in fray for the Panjab University Campus Students Council (PUCSC) president's post are Punjabi faces, hailing either from Punjab or Chandigarh, as per the final list of candidates released by the varsity on Thursday. This, even as the varsity has been witnessing a decline in the number of students from Punjab, owing to migration and other factors. Over the years, the number of students from Haryana and Himachal has consistently grown in the university, a direct effect of which was seen in the election results as well. Last year's winner Anurag Dalal and runner up Prince Chaudhary were both Haryanvi faces, securing 3,433 votes and 3,130 votes respectively. The Punjabi faces, Tarun Sidhu of Students Organisation of India (SOI) and Sarah of PSU Lalkaar, meanwhile trailed with 1,061 votes and 221 votes respectively. The 2023 winner, Jatinder Singh Virk of the National Students Union of India (NSUI), had gone by the name 'Jatin' throughout his campaign to woo voters from Haryana and Himachal.The 2022 winner, Ayush Khatkar, was from Haryana. This time, only Sumit Sharma, who was vying for a ticket from National Students Union of India (NSUI) but ultimately got a ticket from Students Front, hails from Haryana. Speaking about the trend, former president of Punjab Youth Congress and former PUCSC president Brinder Singh Dhillon said, "I feel happy to see that after so many years, so many Punjabi faces will be fighting for the PUCSC post. Further, two of the candidates have a full Gursikh appearance. Events of the previous year, and raking up the issue of renaming Panjab University to also include Haryana have stuck with people. Both NSUI and the Association of Students for Alternative Politics (ASAP) were keeping a watch on each other's candidates, so this kind of an outcome was expected." ASAP state spokesperson Vatanveer Singh Gill added, "Although I am delighted with the outcome, when we were planning on our candidate, we didn't plan in advance to pick a Punjabi face. We only went by the merit of the candidate. Other parties too have decided their candidates based on our pick." This time, three women have filled their nomination for the president's post. This is the same as last year, when three women had fought for the post. Arpita Malik of ABVP had secured 1,114 votes and come third in the contest. This is also the first time in recent memory when the Students Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) has opted for a female face for the president's post. While SOPU is contesting for the post of president after around 12 years, Ardas Kaur, the candidate for SOPU, said she has a huge responsibility to get a good result for the party....