Univ senate polls held, results to be declared soon

Updated on: Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The senate elections of the graduates’ constituency of the University of Mumbai saw a 41 per cent voters’ turnout, as 19,601 queued up to cast their vote for who should go on to be a part of the university’s senate. Counting will take place on Tuesday and the election results are expected to be out early in the week.

Interestingly, the Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena, the student wing of Raj Thackeray’s party, joined hands with Swabhiman, promoted by Nitish Rane, and the Bombay Graduate Forum, which is a wing of the Congress. They have tied up to defeat Aditya Thackeray, who is representing the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena.

Graduates who were taking the National Eligibility Test (NET), which was also held on Sunday, rushed to the polling counters after their exam to cast their votes. However, several voters pointed out that the university had not set up proper infrastructure to handle the rush. At Bhavan’s College and SIWS College, voters had to wait for hours for their turn. “The university had just set one counter even at the Ranade Bhavan inside the Kalina campus for close to 1,500 voters. The long waiting time dissuaded many who returned without casting their votes,” said Anil Galgali from Saki Naka.

During the last senate elections, he added, the large Marathi Bhasha Bhavan was selected as the university’s voting booth and voters had been able to cast their vote within 10 to 15 minutes of their arrival.

Univ senate polls held, results to be declared soon

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