Published On : Fri, Mar 24th, 2023

ABVP sweeps RTMNU Graduates Constituency Senate polls, wins 8 of 10 seats

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Nagpur: Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) dominated the Senate polls of Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU) for 10 seats of Registered Graduate constituency. It won 8 out of 10 seats. ABVP had a clean sweep in the Reserved category where it won all the five seats.

In the Open category ABVP succeeded in winning three seats out of five. Vishnu Changde, Manish Wanjari and Ajay Chavan of ABVP won from the Open category whose results were out in the morning hours of Thursday. Adv Manmohan Bajpai of Vidyarthi Sangram Parishad, a part of Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA) won securing the highest number of votes. It is his fourth term in the Senate.

Rahul Hanwate of Atul Khobragade’s Yuva Graduate Forum (YGF) won for the first time and opened the account for YGF. The votes secured by the candidates are Adv Manmohan Bajpai (MVA)- 2,074,Vishnu Changde (ABVP) – 2,016, Manish Wanjari (ABVP) – 1,862, Rahul Hanwate (YGF)-1,546, Ajay Chavan (ABVP) -1,466. It was Atul Khobragade who had initiated the Senate Parivartan Panel in the last elections that led to victories of Shilwant Meshram and Prashant Dekate. This time Dekate and Meshram got separated from the Parivartan Panel.

Khobragade formed the Yuva Graduate Forum and fielded new candidates. According to the experts, both these panels did proper management for elections. Had they contested together they would have won an impressive number of seats, felt some experts. ABVP too was not sure of winning these many seats. The way several components and top leaders of MVA came together and started the campaign , everyone thought that the group may clinch a good number of seats and establish dominance. It didn’t happen.

In MVA’s case too many top leaders made all the mess as all the leaders insisted on their candidates. The group did not campaign as one panel and individual centric approach made all the difference. The poor poll strategy of MVA came to the fore during counting, the way their second preference votes got transferred. Their star candidates Adv Manmohan Bajpai, Pravin Udapure, Amit Kakde, Hemant Sonare struggled and had to stay dependent on the second preference votes of the eliminated candidates. Pravin Udapure, Amit Kakde, Hemant Sonare, Madhuri Paliwal were eliminated and on the basis of their second-preference votes, Adv Bajpai won the polls.

A total of 13,949 voters participated in the voting. Out of total votes, 12,254 votes were valid and 1,695 votes became invalid. A quota of 2,043 votes was fixed for five seats. At the end of the first round, no candidate could complete the fixed quota. There were 25 candidates in the Open category.

The 42-hours counting process was monitored by Returning officer Dr Raju Hiwase. Dr Shamrao Koreti, Dr Ravin Jugade, Dr Rupesh Badere worked with Dr Hiwase. Pradeep Biniwale, Wasim Ahmed, Dr. Rajendra Utkhede, Mehtab Khan, Sanjay Bhoyer, Ganesh Kumkumwar, Shailesh Rathod, Manish Zodpe, Praveen Gotmare, Salim Shah, Swapnil Modak, NitinKharbade took pains.