The Aaditya Thackeray-led Yuva Sena managed to bag all the seats from the General and reserved constituencies, defeating the ABVP and other student wings.
Shiv Sena's student wing Yuva Sena scripted a historic feat by winning all the 10 seats from the graduates constituency of the University of Mumbai (MU), the results of which were declared on Thursday morning.
The Aaditya Thackeray-led Yuva Sena managed to bag all the seats from the General and reserved constituencies, defeating the ABVP and other student wings.
Mahadev Jagtap, Pradeep Sawant, Pravin Patankar, Supriya Karande and Milind Satam were elected from the Open category. Sheetal Sheth won from the women's constituency, Nikhil Jadhav from the SC constituency, Rajan Kolambelkar from the OBC category, Shashikant Zore from the DT/NT category, and Dhanraj Kohachade won from the ST category.
Expressing his happiness, Thackeray said, "We have created history. The results reflect the work we have done in the last few days by taking up issues at the university level. We will ensure that we bring about a change in the functioning of the university."
For Yuva Sena members, the victory was expected, considering the micro-level planning and continued efforts of its candidates.
"The planning began way back in June 2017, when we started registering graduate voters after the statutes of elections came into place. Our members then followed it up with voters, taking our final registration tally to 46,000 of the 62,000 total voters registered for the elections," said Pradeep Sawant, who has been elected for the second consecutive term.
After the elections were announced, the Sena held regular meetings at the local level to take stock of the situation. "In these meetings, we familiarised our candidates with the working of the university so they can convince voters more efficiently," said Sainath Durge, a member of Sena's core committee.
The Sena ensured that each of the 53 booths, where voting was to take place, had a polling officer and enough karyakartas to help direct voters — something none of the other student wings did. A dummy ballot paper was also created so that people knew whom to vote for, considering that the voting was preferential and even the second and third choices were to matter.
As the university is set to have an active, fully elected 78-member senate after three years under the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, Yuva Sena is now determined to make a difference in the working of the university. "Over the last two years, the varsity has lagged behind due to issues like the onscreen evaluation. We will now work to ensure that the right decisions are made to ensure that the students do not suffer," said Sawant.
SENATE AT A GLANCE
Total members:78
Elected members:41
Teachers: 10
Principals:10
Registered graduates: 10
Management Representatives: 06
University professors: 03
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