Goyal group in the saddle, bags 11 of 15 seats

Amarjot Kaur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 15

The high-octane electoral battle that spelled the dawn of the new Syndicate, or the executive government of the PU, today, was fought between the university’s two influential cliques — Congress-leaning Goyal group and the other one led by the BJP.

From a total of 23 contenders in the fray from both sides, the 11 elected members of the Goyal group will constitute the majority in the new Syndicate. Unlike last year’s clean sweep of the Navdeep Goyal-Ashok Goyal alliance, which wiped out BJP completely from the then formed Syndicate, this year, the BJP group has bagged four seats — three from the Faculty of Arts and one from the combined faculty. Besides, the deans and secretaries of Faculty of Medical Sciences and Faculty of Laws were elected today.

Staring 9am, an increasing number of Senators, about 80, flocked the Syndicate Hall and took turns to cast their votes on the polling day. Standing out from the crowd, big political guns and PU fellows Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Som Parkash, MP Kirron Kher, MLA Tript Bajwa, MLA Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal and former MPs Pawan Kumar Bansal and Tarlochan Singh visited the PU and voted for their candidates.

The voting process

The Senate elects the Syndicate of the PU. A total of five faculties, comprising arts, sciences, languages, laws and medical sciences, along with a combined faculty voted to form the new Syndicate. The combined faculty includes faculties of Dairying, Animal Husbandry & Agriculture, Education, Business Management and Commerce, Engineering & Technology, Design & Fine Arts and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

In the first five faculties, members of the Senate (each of whom is assigned two faculties out of the five faculties in question) can cast their vote to elect three Syndics each from arts and science faculties and two each from languages, laws and medical sciences. All Senators are free to vote for the representatives in the combined faculty.

Of winners and losers

The BJP floated three candidates from the Faculty of Arts, while the Goyal group fielded only Dr Ronki Ram who garnered just 12 votes and lost to Rajinder Bhandari’s and Dr RS Jhanji’s 22 votes each and DR Sarabjit Kaur’s 21 votes. From the Faculty of Sciences, Prof Navdeep Goyal, Prof Jarnail Singh and Prof Surinder Kaur contested unopposed, securing three positions in the Syndicate. In the Faculty of Languages, Gurmeet Singh and Sandeep Kumar, who got 15 votes each, were defeated by Ashok Goyal and Keshav Malhotra, who bagged 23 votes each. Advocates Anu Chatrath and DPS Randhawa, who are also PU senators, paved their way to the Syndicate unopposed from the Faculty of Laws. Contesting from the BJP group, both Varinder Singh Gill and Nisha Bhargawa lost their seats to the Congress’s Rabindranath Sharma and Dr Harpreet Singh Dua. While Nisha secured 23 votes, Harpreet bagged 31. After a tie-breaker repoll, Varinder lost to Sharma.

Both, the BJP group and Congress nominated three candidates each for the combined faculty. From the Congress’s side, Prof Emanual Nahar and Prof Iqbal Sandhu won with 44 and 38 votes respectively, but Prof Shelly Walia lost the seat and could only amass 41 votes. From the BJP group, Prof Ajay Ranga and Prof Jagdish Mehta, who got 34 and 36 votes respectively, lost the election. However, Prof Satish Kumar emerged a winner from the BJP group with 44 votes.

Deans elected

While Anu Chatrath has been re-elected as the Dean of Faculty of Laws, Prof PL Garg has also been re-elected as the Dean of Faculty of Medical Sciences. Dr Rattan Singh has been voted the Secretary of Faculty of Laws and Dr Ashish Jain has been elected the Secretary of Faculty of Medical Sciences.

Tandon’s last-minute walkout

Some sources revealed that Chandigarh BJP president Sanjay Tandon, who had been campaigning for the BJP group and was rumoured to be contesting the Syndicate elections against Ashok Goyal from the Faculty of Languages, walked out at the last minute. “It was certain that he’d be contesting from the Faculty of Languages, but at the last minute, the names of Prof Gurmeet Singh and Sandeep Kumar were announced. Tandon just left. I feel, he was contesting to scare away the old battle horse Ashok Goyal, but in vain,” the source informed.

A tie-breaker repoll

A Syndic, requesting anonymity, shared that a pall of gloom descended on the BJP supporters, who were certain of Varinder Singh Gill’s (aka Vicky) win from the Faculty of Medical Sciences, when Senator Rabindranath Sharma and Vicky, got 27 votes each. Then as a tie-breaker, re-polling was done. “After the re-poll, Rabindranath Sharma got 29 votes, while Vicky had to bite the dust with just 21 votes,” the Syndic said.

What is Syndicate

Comprising 15 elected members — two from languages, three each from arts and sciences, two from law, two from medical science and three from the combined faculty — the Syndicate is the executive body of the university. The Director of Public Instruction, Punjab, and Director of Public Instruction, Chandigarh, are ex-officio members of the Syndicate, while the Vice-Chancellor is its Chairman.