The Technology Students' Gymkhana election of 2017 was conducted on 8th April. Total of 54 candidates contested for 25 Gymkhana posts, out of which 8 candidtes won unopposed. The results were declared on the same day by 7 pm.
Usually, the Technology Students' Gymkhana of IIT Kharagpur is responsible of several activities in the institute, and therefore it is demanded to be a representation of the student body. Elections are contested for several coveted positions of responsibility, as Gymkhana Officer Bearers, such as the Vice-President, General Secretaries, and Secretaries.
Candidates employ various forms of publicity for maximum outreach and engagement. Social media plays an important role but a special emphasis is given on personal, face-to-face interactions. During hall days, candidates visit each room for introducing themselves and collecting feedback or plans that they may wish to include in their proposals.
The voting is conducted by CIC and Gymkhana officials under the purview of an election officer. Until 2016, the polling booths used to be set up in all halls of residence and votes were cast from 3.30 pm to 7.30 pm. In 2017, however, the polling booths were setup at selected places and halls:
Gymkhana
PG Halls of Residence
The voting was conducted in two phases: i) morning and ii) evening. In some cases when the voter turnout was low, voting times were extended by a consensus. Posters were not allowed this year for eco-friendly reasons.
There was a controversy regarding the minimum CGPA requirement to contest for VP, which was proposed to be raised to 7.00 (mid-March 2017), allegedly to block the nomination of Devanand Kedia and Mayank Srivastava. The proposal was however rejected.
Devanand Kedia, in his SOP claimed that he is a co-founder of the website Instiinfo, but Atal Agarwal (VP TSG 2015-2016), one of the panelist, claimed that his name was added on the website in Feb 2017 and his name was not present in earlier snapshots of the website on archive.org. Later on 7th August, Shovan Panigrahi (VP TSG 2016-2017) sent an email to students informing them about "Election Regulation Cell" which found Devanand Kedia's credential about instiinfo incorrect.[2]Awaaz IIT Kharagpur raised questions about the timing of the of the email and the verification process.[3] The co-founders of instiinfo.com claimed in a video that Devanand Kedia was also a co-founder.[4] The 5 mentioned co-founders, although were friends in their first year, when the website was launched at the beginning of the next semester, it only mentioned 4 co-founders. A reddit user put together some more evidence denying Devanand Kedia as one of the founders, claiming there were only 4 founders to begin with.[5]