Maharashtra’s ruling Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde has raised doubts and suspicions against the process of the Mumbai University’s senate elections. MLC Dr Manisha Kayande said, “Just as in other polls there are election commissioners to monitor the election process, a retired judge or retired commissioner should be appointed to monitor the senate elections so that there is transparency in the process. We have found that there is massive malpractice going on in the senate election process of graduates of Mumbai University. Voter lists that have been prepared are completely flawed. There are many errors in it. The important thing in this process is that more than 14,000 forms have been registered from the same IP address. Also, fee payment for 437 forms has been done through a single card. How is this possible?”
Further, Kayande also alleged that there has been massive manipulation of the voter list. In most places, the same name has been recorded two or three times, she said. At many places, the address doesn’t match with the name, Kayande said. “After these irregularities came to light, we wrote a letter to the vice-chancellor of Mumbai University on October 4, 2023, expressing strong objections to this election process. Despite this, Mumbai University did not pay attention to it. But the court took our letter seriously, postponed this election process, and formed a three-member committee to investigate. Therefore, Mumbai University yesterday announced that the re-registration process will be conducted from October 30 to November 30. But this has raised a question mark on the functioning of Mumbai University.”
In August, Mumbai University stayed its senate polls, with the opposition claiming the move reflected the Maharashtra government’s dictatorial attitude and its fear of holding any kind of election.
Mumbai University’s expert panel has submitted its findings over the complaints of discrepancies and duplications in the senate voter list. The committee was established in response to a complaint filed by BJP MLA Ashish Shelar, who alleged 750 duplicate entries in the senate voter list. The matter is currently being heard in the Bombay High Court.
Kayande has asked the university administration a bunch of questions. Why Aadhaar cards were not sought while registering the forms? How did the administration allow all the forms to get registered in a single slot? How did the university allow paying the fees of several forms from one card? Why was OTP not asked for? What has Mumbai University done to stop this disturbance?
“This type of irregularity happens every time in the senate elections of Mumbai University. But Mumbai University has no mechanism to stop this irregularity. Since 2010, 10 candidates have been elected from the same organisation. While preparing the voter list, it is tampered with. Some organisations have also made repeated attempts to win the senate elections by forming political alliances, which is very wrong. People who had no qualifications and who had never worked in any department of Mumbai University were selected. Many things were continuously going wrong there due to collusion among themselves. We have repeatedly objected to these suspected irregularities,” said Kayande.
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