Association urges governor to hold fresh senate poll for teachers’ group

Two days after the University of Mumbai (MU) stayed senate election for the graduates’ group, a teachers’ union approached Governor and chancellor Ramesh Bais, urging him to declare their election that was held in July null and void because there were errors in the electoral roll.

Subhash Athawale, a member of Mumbai University and College Teachers Association (MUCTA), said, “We had also complained about the errors in the voters’ list during the election for the teachers’ group and demanded that it be put on hold, but no one paid attention. We have now requested the governor to intervene and ask MU to declare the poll null and void and hold a fresh election.”

Acting on a complaint by BJP leader Ashish Shelar that there were anomalies in the voters’ list, the university late on August 17 night announced that it would halt the graduates’ group’s poll scheduled for September 10.

MUCTA, in a petition submitted to Bais on August 19, said the published electoral list of teachers had only 2,303 voters of 10,447 approved teachers. As many as 1,381 teachers were shown on the rejected list, it added.

“However, in the corrected list, only three voters were added, raising the number of approved voters to 2,306. Due to this change, the number of voters on the rejected list came down to 1,378. MUCTA had on April 2 written to the governor explaining the electoral issues and demanding that the process be stayed,” Athawale said.

MU declared the election results on July 9.

“We are waiting for the governor to act on this. Or else, we will move the Bombay high court,” Athawale added.

Yuva Sena (UBT) demands scrutiny of documents

Ten members of Yuva Sena (UBT), who submitted application forms for electoral candidates on Friday, demanded scrutiny of their documents on Monday at MU’s Fort campus. As per the old schedule, Friday was the last day to submit applications, and on Monday, the scrutiny process was supposed to start.

“If the university accepted our application as per the old schedule, then they must also start scrutiny as per the schedule,” Pradeep Sawant, a former senate member and member of Yuva Sena (UBT), said. Along with Sawant, the nine other members protested outside the vice chancellor Ravindra Kulkarni’s cabin till Monday evening.

An MU official said they had received a letter from Yuva Sena (UBT) and they would look into it.