PUTA poll: Naura-Mritunjay faction wins another term

Naura-Mritunjay group is set to embark on another term after it won the Panjab University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) election today. As many as 549 votes were polled from 8 am to 2 pm in the Law Auditorium today.

Prof Amarjit Singh Naura won the post of president with 287 votes, while his rival Prof Ashok Kumar polled 244 votes. For the post of secretary, Mritunjay Kumar won the seat with 288 votes against 246 votes polled in favour of Kulwinder Singh. Naura and Kumar were elected to the same seats last year as well.

The post of joint secretary was won by Surinder Pal Singh, while that of treasurer was bagged by Deepak Kumar, both from the same group. The group, which has won for the eighth consecutive term, was backed by Prof Keshav Malhotra.

However, the vice-presidential candidate of the Naura-Mritunjay group, Simran Kaur, who bagged 247 votes, was defeated by Suruchi Aditya, who polled 286 votes. For the Executive Members Group 1, Gautam Bahl, Khushpreet Brar, Nitin Arora and Sumedha Singh, from the Naura-Mritunjay group were elected with 320, 330, 331 and 297 votes, respectively.

For the Executive Members Group 3, Amita Sarwal, Deepak Gupta and Neeraj Aggarwal from the same group won, while the fourth winning member Ikreet Singh is from the Teacher’s Voice United Front. For Group 4, Prof Keshav Malhotra has been elected unopposed, while Jaspreet Kaur, Mohinder Singh Negi, Tanzeer Kaur and Vijay Kumar, also from the winning group, have been elected unopposed.

During the last term, the Naura-Mritunjay group had seven members. This time, they have got 17 of their members elected.