PU senate: Three declared elected from graduate constituency

The candidates, Dayal Partap Singh Randhawa, Sandeep Singh and Mukesh Arora, are all former senators at Panjab University

With the counting of votes underway on the Panjab University (PU) campus, three of the 15 candidates from the registered graduate constituency were declared elected on Tuesday.

This will be the fourth term as a senator for Dayal Partap Singh Randhawa, who has also remained the PU student council president in 1998-99 and 1999-2000. (HT Photo)

The candidates, Dayal Partap Singh Randhawa, Sandeep Singh and Mukesh Arora, are all former senators, with Dayal and Sandeep also having remained student leaders.

Sandeep Singh has also remained president of students’ union at Government College, Hoshiarpur, from 2006 to 2010. (HT Photo)

Sandeep secured 3,667 votes, Mukesh 2,859 and Dayal 2,386. The counting of votes began on Monday at the gymnasium hall of PU.

The registered graduate constituency is the largest among the eight constituencies of PU senate. Even though it had 3.61 lakh eligible voters, the voter turnout was only 14.57%. The polling for the constituency was held in two phases.

This will be the fourth term as a senator for Dayal, who has also remained the PU student council president in 1998-99 and 1999-2000.

“We will push that all matters, pending due to Covid-19 and the delay in senate polls, are taken up immediately. Timely resolution of issues of students, teachers and non-teaching staff will also be my priority,” he said.

This will be the seventh term as senator for Mukesh Arora. (HT Photo)

For Mukesh, this will be the seventh term as senator. He has become senator from the graduate constituency for the fifth time. He said his focus will be on pushing for the regularisation of part time and guest faculties in colleges.

“I will make efforts that quality education is given in colleges at affordable prices so that equal opportunity is given to all students,” he said.

PU has deputed around 200 employees for the counting of votes, including a core team of four officials, assistant core team of nine officials, 16 teams with six members each for counting and around 75 as supporting staff. A total of 35 candidates have already been declared elected from the senate’s eight constituencies.