The English Press Club sat down with Sajal Yadav, one of the three presidential candidates contesting this year’s Students’ Union (SU) Elections, for a short interview.

Sajal is a third-year dual degree student pursuing an MSc. in Biology and a B.E. in Computer Science. When asked about his motivations that led him to take part in student politics, Sajal mentioned that he held a few positions of responsibility in his school. He credited that period for giving him his first taste of leadership and mentioned that it was satisfying to have a positive impact on the people around him.

At BITS, as a dualite, he was uninvolved in student politics at BITS until his second year, when he joined the SU Executive Committee and the Union Finance Committee. Sajal asserted that this experience acquainted him with the workings and finances of the Students’ Union, which, according to him, meant that he was well-equipped to serve as the President.

Of the numerous initiatives Sajal organised this past year, his proudest include facilitating the Richard Stallman talk, coordinating Founders’ Day 2025, sharing a variety of academic resources and guides, and organising the SU trunk service. He noted that he was also proud of his stance against the attendance-policy changes and his role in ensuring that female guardians could freely enter Meera Bhawan.

Regarding his manifesto, Sajal emphasised the student-centric nature of all of his proposals. He pledged to ‘resign’ if he was unable to revoke the recent attendance policy changes in his first fifteen days of office. He stated that he planned to do this through initiating a comprehensive campus-wide survey, and then lobbying the Senate in coordination with certain professors and figures in administration, as well as lobbying BITS alumni. He reiterated his manifesto point to deliver more than one crore worth of benefits through schemes and discounts for BITSians during his tenure. He also committed to establishing a new, multi-storey, Student Activities’ Centre (SAC) and new technical labs, and making access to current labs, like RKIC, more equitable.

On a parting note, Sajal claimed that his experience within the Union meant that he did not need time for learning the ‘ropes of the office’. He advised the GBM to vote wisely and expressed confidence that they would make a well-informed choice.