Nagpur: The Senate polls for Registered Graduates of Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU) on Sunday witnessed poor turnout as only 22 percent voters exercised their franchise. The poor voting percentage has been attributed to the chaos in allotment of polling centres to voters.
Prominent among those who cast their votes include Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, former Minister and MLC Dr Parinay Fuke, Dr Parineeta Fuke, former Mayor Sandip Joshi, former MLC Girish Vyas, former MLC Anil Sole, MLC Adv Abhijeet Wanjari, Dr Babanrao Taywade and others.
Most voters got the polling centres either quite away from home or in other districts. Those who got centres away from home preferred not to go. Devesh Gondane who is working in Nagpur is a resident of Bhandara. He got a polling centre at Bhandara though he had mentioned his Nagpur address in his form that he had submitted.
“These polls were postponed earlier in November. During that time also, University had allotted polling centres and I had got one in Nagpur. Today, I am asked to go to Bhandara to cast my vote. I could not leave as I am on duty,” said Gondane.
Voting process started at 8 am and lasted till 4 pm at 102 polling stations. Dr Raju Hiwase was Election Officer and Registrar. The counting of votes will be held on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, in the hall of Jamnalal Bajaj Administration Building of the RTMNU.
Dr Subhash Chaudhari, Vice Chancellor; Dr Sanjay Dudhe, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Dr Raju Hiwase, Registrar guided the voting process handled by Waseem Ahmed, Pradip Biniwale, Rajendra Utkhede, Mehtab Khan, Ganesh Kumkumwar, Shailesh Rathod, Swapnil Modak, Nitin Kharbade.
The Graduate category has 10 seats. Of these, five are in Open category while the bifurcation of remaining five is SC, ST, OBC, VJNT and Woman.
