Hyd Uni nullifies Students' Union Vice President's election over attendance shortage

The victory of the Students’ Union Vice-President of the University of Hyderabad(UoH) was disqualified on Tuesday for failing to meet the eligibility criteria. The University announced that the re-election for the post would be conducted soon.

UoH Public Relations Officer Ashish Jacob said that the Grievance Redressal Committee had found that the elected Vice-President Lunavath Naresh lacked attendance, which is an eligibility criterion to contest the elections. “The date of the re-election hasn’t been decided yet,” he told TNM.

Lunavath had contested from the Alliance for Social Justice, comprising the Dalit Students Union, the Students Federation of India, the Ambedkar Students Association, the Tribal Students Forum (TSF) etc. It defeated the ABVP and OBCF combine to form the Students’ Union.

Lunavath got 1884 votes to win the post. However, allegedly, the ABVP had complained to the University Election Commission to nullify his election since he lacked attendance, following which there was an inquiry initiated against him on the day of the election results.

In its probe, the Grievance Redressal Committee found that Lunavath did not have the necessary attendance percentage. The University requires each student to have a minimum of 75%.

Alleging foul-play by the Dean of School of Medical Sciences and the ABVP, the newly-elected Students’ Union President Sreerag Poickadan said, “This is nothing but a well-executed plan by the Dean and the ABVP. How can there be an attendance shortage now? It was the Dean, who had earlier signed and approved his candidature. He [the Dean] had approved that Lunavath had all the eligibility including attendance to contest the elections while filing the nominations. Now he’s contesting his own approval!”

To file a nomination, the candidate needs to get the approval of the Dean of their respective School.

“It is clear that the Dean is acting at the behest of the ABVP. The Dean made several contradictions during the inquiry, once he claimed that Lunavath had 68 percent, then 70 and 71,” Sreerag added.

The elections were held on Friday.