Following claims of irregularities from the BJP leader Ashish Shelar and Vidyapeeth Vikas Manch (VVM), a front for the BJP-aligned Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Mumbai University (MU) abruptly postponed its long-overdue senate elections.
Amid this ongoing row over MU Senate Elections, Yuva Sena (UBT) and the Chatara Bharati members met with an administrative officer of the university and demanded to scrutinise their nomination forms filled out on August 18.
Even though the election timetable was postponed on August 17, the student organizations claim that the university nevertheless accepted their nomination papers on August 18 as scheduled and that it is still unclear whether their applications will stand valid or not.
Former MU Senate member from the Yuva Sena (UBT), Pradeep Sawant said, "According to the initial election schedule, August 22 was selected as the day for scrutinizing all nomination papers and announcing the final list of candidates. Why did the administration accept our nomination forms and fee while the institution postponed the election? The university will have to say whether or not our nominations are legitimate."
Rohit Dhale, state head of Chatra Bharti, who filled out the nomination form, said, "As the review of nomination papers was initially planned for August 22, there was sure to be confusion."
The election process was postponed until the matter was settled and on August 17 when the state instructed MU to investigate the reports of anomalies. The polls were halted on the same day by the management council of the university while they were still in the nomination filing phase. Several student organizations and opposition political parties have reacted angrily to the move, accusing the state's Shive Sena (Shinde faction)-BJP-NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) government of meddling in the affairs of the university and damaging the democratic process.
VVM claimed to have discovered around 200 duplicate names in the voting lists for the registered graduate constituency of the senate, in their complaint that was submitted to MU and Governor Ramesh Bais earlier this month. Ashish Shelar also complained about more than 755 instances of duplication or even triplication of names in a letter to Chandrakant Patil, the minister of higher and technical education. Additionally, he asserted that a large number of names were suspiciously added and deleted from the final list of 94,631 voters.
Last week Mumbai University took a decision to defer Senate elections for the graduate constituency. After the announcement political blame game abrupted. The decision was taken by the university as per state government directives, which took cognizance of a complaint filed by Ashish Shelar on bogus voter registration.
Many student unions, essentially youth wings of different political parties, are claiming that political parties are delaying the election, as they are scared of their representatives losing their positions.
For the purpose of choosing regional senatorial representatives, graduate constituency elections are held. The elected representatives then serve as the main source of authority for all budgetary projections at universities.
Anyone who has graduated may sign up to vote in this election. This year's graduate constituency election for the Mumbai University Senate has attracted close to one lakh voters.
"The nomination applications were accepted on August 18 because the circular was released late on August 17 night and many people were unaware of it," stated a senior MU administration official. The election schedule is postponed, nevertheless, he added.
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