50% Mumbai University Senate Voter List Applications Rejected

After scrapping the entire electoral roll for its senate elections, the University of Mumbai (MU) has rejected almost half the applications for inclusion in the new voter list. 

Of 26,994 graduates of the university who applied to vote in the senate polls, only 13,394 were approved while an almost equal number - 13,550 - were rejected for a variety of reasons such as illegible degree number, mismatch in the applicant's details with those on the attached documents and failing to upload any of the required documents. The rejected applicants will have until March 4 to register their grievances and upload missing documents.

MU redoing the voter registration process

MU is redoing the voter registration process for the graduates' constituency of the senate, the top statutory body of the varsity, following allegations of discrepancies in electoral rolls by BJP leader Ashish Shelar. While a three-member probe committee appointed by MU refuted the claims about names being repeated in the list, it recommended redoing the voter enrolment process as it faulted the varsity for making Aadhar mandatory for voter registration, despite there being no such provision in the rules. 

MU received an underwhelming response to its fresh voter enrolment drive for the senate elections, with only a fraction of the previously registered voters applying to participate in the poll process. In the earlier drive, a record 1.13 lakh candidates had applied to be voters, of which 94,631 were deemed eligible, with only 16% of the applications getting rejected.

Pradip Sawant, a former MU senate member from Yuva Sena, youth wing of Shiv Sena (UBT), said that the applications were rejected due to frivolous grounds. "We will seek review of the rejected applications," he said.

"The university is making a mockery of democracy," adds Santosh Gangurde, Santosh Gangurde, state chief organiser, Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena (MNVS).