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Bhartesh Singh Thakur
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 16
As expected, both prominent groups in the Panjab University (PU) Senate, led by Ashok Goyal and Prof Navdeep Goyal, joined hands and prevented the BJP-RSS from taking any seat in the annual Syndicate elections today.
In the previous Syndicate, the BJP-RSS had two members — city BJP president Sanjay Tandon and Dr Subhash Sharma. This time, Vicky Gill’s group joined hands with the BJP-RSS as he fell out with Prof Navdeep Goyal over the distribution of seats.
Both Ashok Goyal and Prof Navdeep Goyal are affiliated to the Congress. They were upset over key posts going to BJP-RSS people and the formation of committees over working of hostel wardens and apprehension that the Dean Students Welfare, Prof Emanuel Nahar, would be replaced. The ouster of the Dean Reserach, Prof SK Tomar, who is from the BJP-RSS camp, was the flashpoint between the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Raj Kumar, on the one side and Prof Navdeep Goyal-Ashok Goyal on the other.
The BJP-RSS lobby defended the VC, claiming that he was their own man.
There are 15 Syndicate seats for which elections were conducted today. The Arts, Science and Combined Faculties have three seats each while Law, Medical Sciences and Law have two each.
The combined faculty comprises Business Management and Commerce; Dairying, Animal Husbandry and Agriculture; Design and Fine Arts; Education; Engineering and Technology and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Prof Navdeep Goyal’s group, which also comprises the DAV colleges’ lobby, Prabhjit Singh’s group and Jagpal Singh’s group, bagged 10 seats. Of them, five got elected unopposed in the Science and Law faculties. Prof Navdeep Goyal got elected from the Law faculty.
Ashok Goyal’s group got five seats. Of them, two got elected unopposed from the Medical Science faculty. Ashok Goyal and Panjab University Teachers Association president Prof Rajesh Gill got elected from the Languages faculty. Prof Gill is from Ashok Goyal’s camp.
Voting took place in Arts, Languages and Combined Faculties
First, voting took place for three seats from the Arts faculty. The DAV colleges’ lobby, which is aligned with Prof Navdeep Goyal’s group, put up three members — Dr Gurdip Kumar Sharma, Jagdeep Kumar and Sandeep Singh. All are from Hoshiarpur.
From the BJP-RSS, Dr NR Sharma, Principal, Panjab University constituent college Guru Har Sahai, Ferozepur, contested the elections.
Dr Gurdip Kumar Sharma got 17 votes, Jagdeep Kumar bagged 16 and Sandeep Singh received 14. Dr NR Sharma got 13. Two votes were declared invalid. They were tick-marked against Dr NR Sharma, instead of crossed against his name as required. Otherwise, he would have been elected. The top three vote-getters were declared elected.
In the Languages faculty, for two seats, Ashok Goyal and Prof Rajesh Gill contested the elections, while the BJP-RSS put up Sandeep Dhuria. Ashok Goyal got 17. Prof Gill received 16 and Dhuria bagged 10. The top two vote-getters were declared elected.
The third contest took place in the Combined Faculty, which has three seats. Prof Rajat Sandhir, Dr Rajesh Kumar Mahajan and Naresh Gaur fought against Dr Surinder Singh Sangha and Dr RS Jhanji.
Prof Sandhir and Dr Mahajan are from Prof Navdeep Goyal’s group, while Gaur is from Ashok Goyal’s group. Dr Sangha fought from Vicky Gill’s group and Dr Jhanji from the BJP-RSS.
Prof Sandhir received the highest number of votes — 48, Gaur and Dr Mahajan were tied at 42, while Dr Jhanji bagged 29 and Dr Sangha got 23. The top three vote-getters were declared elected.
Dean elections
Dr PL Garg won the Dean Medical Science post as he defeated Prof Baljinder Singh of Vicky Gill’s group. Dr Garg got 35, while Prof Singh received 17.
Both Ashok Goyal and Prof Navdeep Goyal had supported Dr Garg, while the BJP-RSS supported Prof Singh.
Anu Chatrath, from Navdeep Goyal’s group, was elected the Dean Laws unopposed. Also, Jarnail Singh from Navdeep Goyal’s group was elected unopposed as Dean Dairying, Animal Husbandry and Agriculture.
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