LUACTA polls: Pandey, Kedia re-elected as president, gen secy amid pandemonium

The counting remained halted for multiple hours after 17 extra votes were found in the ballot box containing votes from Rae Bareli; another issue cropped up when 84 votes were found during the counting for commerce representative’s election while there were only 48 registered voters

LUCKNOW After allegations of rigging and pandemonium that prevailed during the counting process till late on Monday night, Prof Manoj Pandey and Prof Anshu Kedia were elected president and general secretary of the Lucknow University Associated Colleges Teachers’ Association (Luacta) on Tuesday. The polling was conducted at Mumtaz PG College.

People cast their votes during the LUACTA elections at Mumtaz PG College in Lucknow. (Mushtaq Ali/HT Photo)

The election of the representatives of the teachers’ body at associated colleges was marred by late-night protests over alleged irregularities with teachers calling for a re-election. The counting remained halted for multiple hours after 17 extra votes were found in the ballot box containing votes from Rae Bareli. Another issue cropped up when 84 votes were found during the counting for the commerce representative’s election while there were only 48 registered voters in the department.

“Over 1,000 voters were registered with LUACTA, of which 50 opted for postal ballot on Sunday while 888 cast their vote during the election on Monday. The counting process culminated around 3am on Tuesday, after which the results were declared,” said returning officer SP Tripathi.

Pandey won the post for the fifth consecutive time, bagging 711 votes against his opponent Siddhartha Singh who received 176 votes. Kedia was elected general secretary for the fourth consecutive time, bagging 489 votes, after a contest with Amit Rai (398 votes).

Prof Narendra Singh, with 261 votes, and Mohammad Habib who bagged 253 votes, were elected V-Ps while Kirti Prakash Tiwari was announced treasurer with 499 votes.

Elections were held for the posts of president, vice-president, general secretary, joint secretary, treasurer and commerce representative, and for the posts of district president and district general secretary in Rae Bareli.

On being asked about the election, Pandey said there were no extra votes. “The discrepancies were found during counting of votes from Rae Bareli and for the commerce representative post - for which elections have been called off and re-election will be conducted,” he said.

Alleging corruption, Amit Rai questioned that if there were extra votes in Rae Bareli and commerce representative elections, then how can it be considered there were no discrepancies in elections of other posts.

“We will move the Chit Fund Society Registrar against the problems associated with the election. We will also move All India Federation of University & College Teachers’ Organisations (AIFUCTO) and Federation of University & College Teachers’ Association (FUCTA),” said Rai.

He added: “Citing inappropriate behaviour by two LUACTA office-bearers, Manoj Pandey and Anshu Kedia, towards Shia PG College teachers following a verbal duel over alleged anomalies in the election, the Shia College Teachers’ Association (SHIACTA) on Tuesday banned the duo’s entry to the college.”