FPJ Explainer: Long-Delayed Mumbai University Senate Polls & Their Significance

The Bombay High Court, in an urgent hearing on Saturday, directed that the senate elections for the Graduate Constituency of the University of Mumbai (MU) be held on September 24. A bench comprising Justices AS Chandurkar and Rajesh Patil temporarily stayed the Maharashtra government’s September 19 directive, which had postponed the polls. Following the government’s circular, MU had also indefinitely postponed the polls on September 22. These longpending senate elections, meant to fill 10 seats representing the university’s registered graduates, were originally scheduled for September 13, 2023. However, the elections were delayed after the government called for an inquiry into alleged duplicate entries on the electoral rolls. This is the second time the government intervention would have postponed the elections. Here’s an explainer on the long-delayed polls and their significance:

Q. What is senate?

A. Senates are the top statutory bodies at non-agriculture state universities in Maharashtra, such as the MU. Among the two key functions of the body are approving their respective varsity’s annual budget and five-yearly and annual perspective plans, which provide for new colleges and courses under the university. Senate is composed of three sets of members – university office bearers, those appointed by the vice chancellor and chancellor, and elected representatives of university’s graduates, management of affiliated colleges, their principals as well as the teachers at colleges and university departments.

Q. What’s the status of the senate at MU?

A. The term of the previous senate body at MU came to an end in August 2022. However, the election process for the new senate continued well beyond the December 31, 2022, deadline. Even as the polls for the other constituencies eventually took place, the elections for the key graduates constituency are yet to happen in the last two years. Unlike other constituencies, whose elections are generally didn’t create much buzz, polling for the 10 seats for registered graduates witnessed relatively intense elertioneering thanks to the involvement of student and youth wings of mainstream political parties. Yuva Sena, the youth wings of erstwhile undivided Shiv Sena, has dominated these polls during last two cycles, sweeping most of the graduate seats. BJP allied Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena and Nationalist Students Congress are other bodies in the fray.

Q. What’s the reason for the delay?

A. Barely a month before the polling day of September 13, 2023, the MU put a sudden halt on its senate elections following allegations of discrepancies by Vidyapeeth Vikas Manch, a front of BJP-allied Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), as well as the BJP leader Ashish Shelar. The state directed MU to look into the claims of discrepancies and postpone the election process until the issue is resolved. On the same day, the varsity’s management council put a break on the polls, which were at the nominations filing stage. Later, in a drastic move, the university decided to scrap the entire electoral roll of its senate election containing more than 90,000 names and carry out the voter registration process anew. The decision, which came on after a three-member probe panel found that MU had made Aadhaar mandatory for the registration process, even though there was no such provision in the rules for senate elections. However, the panel didn’t find any merit in the complaint about presence of a large number of duplicate entries in the voter list. The university opened a new month-long voter registration window last year.

Q. Why couldn’t the elections be held till date?

A. Barely two days before it was to hold its much-delayed senate elections on September 22, MU announced further postponing the polls indefinitely citing a directive from the state government. The university officials pointed to a probe initiated on Thursday by the state into supposedly low enrollment in the voter list as the basis for deferring the polls. The probe was prompted by a request submitted by former students at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) and the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) at Matunga. The state has asked the former Bombay HC judge KL Wadane, who will lead the probe, to also look into the legality of allowing the graduates from private universities in the geographical region under MU's jurisdiction as well as those graduates who are residing permanently in the area for a long time. Only 13,406 graduates have been deemed eligible for MU's senate electoral rolls, the lowest in four election cycles, after the varsity scrapped the previous list voters following discrepancy allegations from Shelar and the ABVP. The length of electoral roll for registered graduates is barely a fifth of 62,000 voters signed up in 2018, when the last elections were held.