NOIDA: The UP assembly election may be far away, but on Thursday, Government PG Degree College in Sector 39 already got a foretaste of what might be in store.

A team of five Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers reached the campus on a membership drive. It soon degenerated into a brawl after college students, protesting the advances of the AAP workers, tore their canopy and the two groups faced off.

Sohan Singh, chief proctor of the college, said he would not allow political outfits to use the college campus for mileage. "A team of AAP workers had barged into the campus and installed a canopy for a membership drive. They were forcibly asking boys and girls to become members and share their contact numbers. Around 100 students complained about the unauthorized encroachment," Singh said. He said he asked the AAP workers to vacate, but they refused to do so. "So we called the police and drove them away," he added.

However, the AAP workers claimed the college administration's move was politically motivated. AAP Noida convener Narendra Kumar Yadav said their team had installed their canopy outside the college gate. "We ran the membership drive to inform students about our ideology and also to enroll them. But we did not enter the campus," he said. He added that the situation escalated after two women AAP members entered the campus to fetch drinking water. "They had removed their party caps beforehand. But some politically motivated elements started protesting and creating a ruckus. Only when they abused our party workers did others rush in to help," he said.

As the two sides clashed, both called for the police, who reached the spot to diffuse the situation.

An AAP insider said the Noida unit has been instructed by the party headquarters to strengthen the local unit in advance of the 2017 assembly poll. "The membership drive is part of that programme," he said.

College officials said there is no security guard at the campus gate, making it vulnerable to such intrusions. Sohan Singh added the college will now request the GB Nagar SSP for on-campus security, to deny entry to such unauthorized people. Police, though, said no one has registered a formal complaint yet.

