E-Paper
SPPU senate polls held at 71 centres, 26.85% turnout
On Sunday, voting was held at 71 centres across Pune, Nashik and Ahmednagar districts for elections to the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) management council senate
On Sunday, voting was held at 71 centres across Pune, Nashik and Ahmednagar districts for elections to the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) management council senate. The registered voter turnout was 26.85% even as poll results will now be counted and declared on Tuesday, November 22. The major contest is between the BJP-supported ‘Vidyapeeth Vikas Manch’ and another panel supported by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
As per the information shared by the SPPU administration, 71 centres went to polls on Sunday between 10 am and 5 pm. Long queues of voters were seen since the morning at major voting centres in Pune, including S P college, Fergusson college, Modern college Shivajinagar and the main centre inside the SPPU campus.
A total of 88,900 voters had registered for the polls, of which 23,866 voted on Sunday. Of these 23,866 voters, 16,601 were male while 7,265 were female. Professor Sanjeev Sonawane, pro vice-chancellor, SPPU, said, “Today, the entire voting process across all centres in the three districts took place smoothly. At some centres, there were some issues initially such as slow voting process and the need for additional manpower which were immediately resolved. There was no untoward incident during the voting process at the SPPU campus and all other voting centres.”
Whereas volunteers and senior leaders of the supporting political parties were seen along with the candidates across voting centres. At the S P college voting centre, more than 10 former corporators and BJP leaders were present since the morning, personally calling voters to show up at the voting booth and cast their votes. “Our entire system and process to call, remind and deliver the votes of our registered voters is set and accordingly, we are working throughout this election process. Even today, all our volunteers were given proper instructions to guide the voters and we are confident of winning all 10 seats,” said Raghvendra Bappu Mankar, Pune city BJP leader.
Volunteers of the MVA-supported panel, too, were seen working hard to bring the voters to the polling booth. Kuldeep Ambekar, convenor of the panel, said, “We have tried to reach out to every registered voter in the last two weeks and today, on the day of voting, our volunteers across voting centres are working hard for the win.”
Compared to the last SPPU senate elections that were held in 2017, the voting percentage dropped this time. In the 2017 senate elections, there were a total 37 candidates in the race while 23,726 voters exercised their voting rights and the voting percentage was 47.66%.
