BJP panel vs Sena-NCP’s: Maharashtra politics plays out in a Pune university election

“It is not as much a university contest, but a political battlefield,” a candidate, who has withdrawn his nomination, says.

A total of 36 candidates are in the fray, and polling will take place in three districts, Pune, Ahmednagar and Nashik, where SPPU has affiliate colleges. Of the 10 seats, five are in the general category, four are for different reserved categories and one is kept aside for women.

SPPU has over 700 affiliated colleges under it and a combined student strength of 6 lakh plus. Its total annual budget is upwards of Rs 550 crore. The Senate is one of the most powerful bodies in the university, and given SPPU’s huge student population and consequent influence, its control is coveted by all political parties.

For the 10 graduate constituency seats in the Senate, only former graduates of the university can stand, and vote. Apart from that, the Senate includes the chancellor, vice-chancellor, deans of faculties, registrar, finance officer, directors of schools and departments, 10 people nominated by the vice-chancellor, and other nominated members, as well as other elected members, such as 10 representatives of principals of NAAC-affiliated colleges, 10 elected teacher representatives, six representatives of managements of educational institutions.

From setting up war rooms, enabling technology to assist voters like creating scanned QR codes for candidates / polling data, and door-to-door campaigns for voter registration, to enlisting support, no strategy has been left unexplored for the graduate seats.

“The preparation for the elections started a year ago. Our volunteers went door-to-door to get registrations done, and the results are there for everyone to see. Last year, there were around 65,000 voters, this year the number is above 88,000. We are very confident of winning all the seats. Firstly the panel is experienced, they have shown a lot of work in the past in enhancing the university’s status in academic circles as well as its public outreach,” says Rajesh Pande, the BJP city unit chief who is heading the campaign for the VVM panel.

Among those who have pitched in for the VVM are Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, old Senate hands like Santosh Dhore, Dadabhau Shinalkar, ex-ABVP activists Bageshri Manthalkar, Sagar Vaidya and Rahul Pakhare, among others.

On the other hand, the Sena and NCP-backed Pragati Panel is led by ex-city mayor Prashant Jagtap and backed by MLA Kapil Patil.

For the seat reserved for women, the panel’s Tabassum Inamdar, Director, Muslim Co-op Bank, is set to give a close fight to Manthalkar. “It is the overconfidence of the VVM panel which will be shattered after the counting of votes. In other outreach, we have also done man-to-man marking, and have learnt from past mistakes and improved on them. It won’t be so easy for the VVM,” says Jagtap.

A third panel is also in the race, Chhatrapati Shahu Parivartan Panel, led by former Senate member Shashikant Tikote, which is contesting six seats. A veteran in university politics, Tikote had set the ball rolling for the change of the University of Pune’s name to SPPU.

The toughest competition will be seen for the five seats in the open category, with 18 candidates in the fray.