New faces to dominate MSU senate

VADODARA: M S University's (MSU) new senate will witness an interesting mix of new and old faces. On Monday, as results of the 12 seats of the keenly contested elections for the registered graduates category of senate were declared, seven new faces and five old faces emerged as winners.
MSU's senate has 13 seats of registered graduates' category. Of the 13, sitting senate member Dinesh Yadav was already declared as won uncontested from Faculty of Arts.Elections for the remaining 12 seats were held on Sunday.
After counting of the polls which was held at MSU head office, the BJP-RSS group's another attempt to establish a complete majority was once again ruined. As the results came out, five candidates supported by the majority group comprising of BJP-RSS members won the polls whereas seven others including four supported by the Congress, two by the ABVP group and two independent candidates also emerged as winners.
Among political heavyweights, city Congress chief Narendra Ravat emerged as winner from Faculty of Technology and Engineering (FTE) while Hemal Mehta, former university general secretary supported by the ABVP group also emerged as winner. Mehta is wife of former national president of BJP's Yuva Morcha Amit Thacker but the majority group of MSU comprising BJP-RSS members was not supporting her.
The seven new faces that win join MSU's new senate as first timers includes Mehta from Faculty of Science, Amar Dhomse from Faculty of Commerce, Shatrughan Thakur from Faculty of Fine Arts, Pinakini Shah from Faculty of Family and Community Sciences, Jaydeep Behre from Faculty of Performing Arts, Satyen Kulabkar from Faculty of Management Studies and Adil Marawala from Faculty of Journalism and Communication.
The five sitting senate members who have managed to retain their seats include Dr Prakash Shah from Faculty of Medicine, advocate Kamal Pandya from Faculty of Law, Dipak Shah from Faculty of Social Work, Raisinh Dahima from Faculty of Education and Psychology and Ravat from FTE.
The four old-timers who lost in the fray include Lalit Patel from Faculty of Science, Bipin Patel from Faculty of Fine Arts, Rajnikant Darji from Faculty of Commerce and Jignesh Shah from Faculty of Performing Arts.
As the results were announced, supporters burst crackers outside the MSU head office taking out victory rallies of the candidates supported by them.