Big win for LDF in Kerala University elections

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The LDF won 11 out of the 14 seats in the Kerala University Syndicate elections. The counting of the votes was held here on Friday.The elected members belonging to the LDF are, P Raghunathan (private college teacher), P S Sreekala (government college teacher), Fazaludeen Haq (general), P Rajendran (general), S P Deepak (general), Mohanachandran Nair (university teacher), K N Vivekanandan (private college teacher), J Latha (government college principal), Saji Cherian (general), B Raghavan (scheduled caste) and Chintha Jerome (student).The UDF nominees elected are, George Mercier (general), Jeevan Lal (private college principal) and Jyothikumar Chamakala (general). However, the election of Raghavan and George Mercier, who were elected from the MLAs’ constituency to the Senate, would become null and void as they are no longer legislators. On the other hand, the election of Latha, who was later selected as Director, Technical Education, would also become null and void. This is because she is no longer a government college principal. She was elected to the Senate from the government college principals’ constituency.Consequently, the total strength of the Syndicate has become 11, with only two belonging to the UDF.The term of Chitha Jerome, the student Syndicate member,  is one year. The term of other Syndicate members is four years.  Though the elections were held on March 5, the results were delayed as there was a stay on the announcement of the results following a case filed by Jyothikumar Chamakala. The stay was only vacated a week back. Apart from the elected members, Gopachandran K G, A Gangaprasad, G Rajeev and P G Sukumaran Nair were earlier nominated as experts to the Syndicate. The Vice-Chancellor, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Higher Education Secretary, IT Secretary, DPI and Collegiate Education Director are ex-officio members.