Polls for five seats of profs' category today

VADODARA: The first elections for M S University's highest body - the senate - will kick off with the professors' category polls on Saturday.
Fifteen candidates are in the fray for the five seats of professors in the senate body. Elections on Saturday will not only decide the fate of candidates in fray but will also reflect the mood of the university which is divided largely in three groups led by the ABVP, the BJP-RSS and the Congress.
This time around there are only three old hands who are contesting the polls again while as many as 12 candidates are new. The university officials have set up three booths for the polls including two inside the senate hall and one at the old syndicate room. The elections will be held between 1 pm to 4 pm after which counting of the votes will be done from 4.30 pm onwards.
Although there are total 145 professors, who are registered voters in this category of the senate, the turnout of voters is expected to be around 100 as many voters have yet to return from the Diwali vacation.
Results of these elections where voters are the senior-most teachers from the campus will also set the tone and have an impact on the teachers' category elections which are scheduled on November 23.
Established groups are making last minute efforts to ensure that candidates backed by them emerge as winners but the campus is witnessing a highly fluid situation.
On Friday, smses, supposed to be treated as 'mandate' with names of four candidates supported by the BJP-RSS group started making rounds in the campus. But the political 'pundits' were sure of only one victory that from Faculty of Medicine.
It is pertinent to note that those candidates who will get highest votes will emerge as winners and only one candidate can get elected from one faculty each.
Theories that prospects of candidates from Faculty of Technology and Engineering (FTE) are less as there are four professors in fray from the faculty which will result in division of votes were also making rounds. At FTE, professor Bhuvan Parekh, professor Dhananjay Vakaskar, professor C N Murthy and professor M R Yadav are in the fray.
The keenly watched candidates are the two professors from Faculty of Commerce - professor Sharad Bansal and professor S R Kulkarni.
At Faculty of Arts, professor P S Choondawat and professor A Subba Rao are in fray while at Faculty of Science, professor Dhananjay Sant and professor K C Tiwari - both from Department of Geology are contesting the polls.
At Faculty of Management Studies, professor Kiran Joshi and professor J D Jadeja while at Faculty of Education and Psychology, professor H J Patadia is contesting the polls. From Faculty of Medicine, professor Ranjan Aiyer and professor Vimal Batra are contesting the polls.