Deepa group sweeps PU Syndicate election

CHANDIGARH, Dec 18: The Rajinder Deepa group swept the elections to the 15-member Panjab University Syndicate today, bagging 10 seats. Th...

CHANDIGARH, Dec 18: The Rajinder Deepa group swept the elections to the 15-member Panjab University Syndicate today, bagging 10 seats. The G.K. Chatrath group won three seats.

Of the three seats in the Arts faculty, Deepak Manmohan Singh polled 30 votes while Rajinder Bhandari and Prof V.K. Bansal bagged 29 seats each. While Deepak and Bhandari owe allegiance to the Deepa group, Bansal is considered close to Chatrath, dubbed a heavyweight in university politics. In the Arts faculty, prominent among those who lost the elections was Kehar Singh, who polled 28 votes. He was, however, elected the Dean, Dairy, Animal Husbandry and Agriculture Faculty. Emmanuel Nahar has been made the secretary of the Faculty, official sources said.

All three seats in the science faculty have been bagged by the Deepa group candidates. Rajinder Deepa polled 23 votes, I.M. Govil 21 and Dr Rabindra Nath Sharma 20. Prominent among the losers was Chatrath camp’s Mukesh Arora, who polled 19 votes.

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In the languages faculty, Ashok Goel and S.S. Gill were elected unopposed. Both belong to the Deepa group. In the law faculty, however, G.K. Chatrath and Anmol Rattan Sidhu were elected unopposed. Sidhu, too, owes allegiance to the Chatrath group. Chatrath has also been elected the Dean of the Law Faculty.

In the combined faculties, Randeep Singh Surjewala polled 38 votes and A.S. Bedi 36. The third seat saw a tie between S.S. Hundal and Nirmal Kaur, following which a repoll was conducted. However, during the repoll, Nirmal Kaur reportedly submitted an application to Deepak Manmohan Singh, the chairman of the proceedings, that the matter be referred to the Vice-Chancellor. Singh reportedly rejected the application on the basis that a repoll was being conducted as per precedent and after consulting the faculty members. In the repoll, Hundal polled 30 votes as against four by Nirmal Kaur. Though Santosh Choudhary polled 35 votes, she has not been elected because the only seat available to non-teachers went to Surjewala.

In the medical faculty, both syndics were elected unopposed as per tradition, from among doctors. Dr Krishna Yadav and Dr K.S. Chugh are not known to be aligned either to the Chatrath or Deepa group.

During the last Syndicate elections, the Deepa group enjoyed a one-seat advantage over the Chatrath group. However, this lone seat advantage caused a major embarrassment to the authorities throughout the year. With such an unprecedented majority, the power equation has clearly shifted from the old guard to the Young Turks. Moreover, most candidates elected from the Deepa camp are core members of his group, who have swept all seats in the language, combined and science faculties.