With the creation of the GUSA Senate opening up a swath of new seats in the Student Association’s legislature, a parade of political neophytes are jumping into campaign mode.

But among the class of aspiring Senators in today’s election, there is one elephant in the room – the former president, the one who led GUSA when it still called itself GUSA, Pravin Rajan (SFS ’07).

Rajan is the only candidate registered in the Senate district comprising Alumni Square apartments 1-45, looking to continue a trajectory in GUSA that includes two terms on the now-defunct Assembly and one as president. He stepped down from that office in arch, choosing to forgo a second term and the “self-imposed exile” he called the position that composed most of his junior year.

Though the past few months have been the first since his freshman year that Rajan has not been a part of GUSA, he’s pleased with the progress his successors have made.

“The current administration is fantastic,” he says. “There are fewer people [in the executive board] but they really work well as a group.”

Rajan is also looking forward to representing a smaller core of constituents in his apartment complex, a major change from the days he represented his entire class.

“I think it will make a marked improvement,” Rajan says. “As a Senator you know who your constituents are and as a constituent you know exactly who your representative is and who you have to talk to.”

If he wins, Rajan will join a contingent of other notable GUSA figures in the Senate, including Khalil Hibri (SFS ’07) and Geoff Greene (SFS ’07), the executive ticket that lost this year’s disputed presidential election to President Twister urchison (SFS ’08) and Vice President Salik Ishtiaq (SFS ’07).

For some of Rajan’s potential constituents, the prospect of being represented by one of the few GUSA celebrities on campus is appealing.

“He’s class,” says Tim Ralls (COL ’07), a resident of the district Rajan hopes to represent. “From what I heard he was a great GUSA president. Whether or not I’ll feel the effects of what he does, I don’t know,” he says.

Already, Rajan has emerged as the center of attention. At one meeting for interested candidates last week, both Election Commissioner Alison Noelker (COL ’07) and Murchison drew attention to the candidate, making all of the freshmen turn and stare.

But Rajan isn’t taking the opportunity to bask in the spotlight. Instead, he’s talking about the issues like it’s his first go at political office all over again.

“I feel like I’ve learned a lot from my years with GUSA and I look forward to doing a lot this year,” he says.

If elected, Rajan wants to create a sexual assault advocacy class, which he says will be “extraordinarily valuable to the campus community.”

He would also like to explore the reestablishment of Intervarsity, one of the affiliated campus ministries barred from campus by the Office of Campus Ministry in August.

“It’s a shame that the university is getting rid of something that works so well,” he says.

Rajan also says that if GUSA wishes to improve it’s standing as a student government, it should “build a better relationship with the administration and to create an internal memory.”