Strict security at NU senate polls count

The counting for  Nagpur University's senate elections continued peacefully throughout Tuesday, except once when members from rival groups clashed over a tied result from commerce faculty late in evening. Activists from both parties raised slogans blaming university officials for rigging the process. As a result, a recount was ordered.

The counting started amidst unprecedented security in morning at university convocation hall. Entire premises witnessed hectic activities throughout the day as contestants and their followers thronged the area in large numbers to know their fate. The first result was out by 5.30 pm with Rajendra Kakde from NU's department of pharmaceutical sciences emerging winner through preferential voting. He got elected from postgraduate teachers' constituency garnering 81 votes followed by NU's physics department head Shyam Bhoga from the same category with 58 votes.

Interestingly, over 2,000 ballot papers were declared invalid as voters failed to fill them up correctly. There is tough battle between Dr Ved Prakash Mishra's Secular Panel and Baban Taywade's Young Teachers Association (YTA) wuith Prabhuji Deshpande's Shikshan Manch close behind.

Abhijit Wanjari of Secular Panel emerged victorious with most number of votes in the management constituency. He secured 68 votes followed by Kiran Nerkar of YTA with 51 votes. Rajesh Bhoyar (YTA) from Wardha also secured his seat for fourth consecutive term with 58 votes closely followed by first timer Govind Agrawal (Secular) of Ramdeobaba college with 50 votes. Vijay Mogre of Secular secured last seat in this category with 45 votes. Shobha Raisoni (Secular) and Usha Kiran (YTA) also won. From principals' constituency, Taywade and Purushottam Thute secured their seats.

Interestingly, the polls also resulted in some major upsets including that of former management council member Nirmal Singh. Snehalata Jadhav (YTA) from Gadchiroli won the polls from graduates constituency with 4,527 votes. She was followed by Shikshan Manch's Prakash Gedam who garnered 4,425 votes defeating Namdeo Kirsan with 3,045 votes. Others who emerged winners in Graduates constituency included- Ritesh Ganar, Mohan Bajpayee, Gurudas Kamdi, Vasant Chute, Mahendra Nimbarte, and Samir Kene.

In academic council's management quota elections that were conducted simultaneously, YTA's Anil Mhashakhetri emerged victorious with 116 votes followed by Secular panel's Abhijit Gupta with 109. Dinesh, brother of Abhijit Wanjari, lost.

Over 300 NU employees were engaged in the counting process expected to last till Wednesday morning. In fact, after many years, NU employees were seen working in total coordination after hiccups that resulted in the elections being postponed by two weeks. The process was supervised by officiating registrar Mahesh Yenkie who is also returning officer, assistant registrar Sanjay Bahekar. NU counsel Bhanudas Kulkarni guided the team.