Yuva Sena (UBT) wins Mumbai University senate elections in clean sweep

Yuva Sena won all 10 seats in Mumbai University's senate elections, defeating ABVP and solidifying their decade-long dominance

Mumbai: The Yuva Sena (UBT), the youth wing of Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena faction, secured a decisive victory in the graduate constituency of Mumbai University’s senate elections, winning all 10 seats. The results, declared on Friday, reaffirm the Yuva Sena’s stronghold on the senate, which they have maintained for over a decade, and dealt a significant blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

Aaditya Thackeray's Yuva Sena triumphed at the MU polls. (Photo by Bachchan Kumar/ HT PHOTO)(HT PHOTO)

After facing multiple obstacles since August 2023, including prolonged political and legal disputes, the elections were finally held on September 24. The counting of votes took place on Friday at the Cowasjee Jehangir Convocation Hall in Mumbai University’s Fort campus.

With a turnout of around 55%, 7,200 votes were cast, out of which 6,684 were valid. The candidates needed at least 1,114 votes to win in the open category. At the counting centre on Friday, Yuva Sena supporters were seen celebrating, chanting slogans in favour of Shiv Sena and Yuva Sena leaders, and distributing sweets.

For the five open-category seats in the Registered Graduates’ constituency, 15 candidates were in the fray. Additionally, two candidates contested from the Scheduled Castes category, three from Scheduled Tribes, three from Nomadic Tribes or Denotified Tribes, three from Other Backward Classes, and two from the women’s category. Yuva Sena won all five reserved-category seats as well.

On September 21, the Bombay high court stayed the Maharashtra government’s higher and technical education department’s directive to postpone the elections. The department had temporarily stayed the elections and set up a one-member committee to examine why the number of voters had gone down drastically, from 62,000 in 2018 to 13,000 now. The high court allowed the education department to proceed with setting up the committee.

Sankalp Phaldesai, the ABVP’s Konkan region head, said, “It was an election between political giants and the student union. We fought our best. There may have been some strategic faults, which we will surely introspect. Apart from all malpractices the winners did during the elections, at least they have their names penned on the winning sheets. ABVP congratulates them and wishes them all the best. May they be in the mindset to solve the issues of student fraternity rather than of the politicians.”