SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, March 6: The election of the Federation of Universities Teachers Association of Jharkhand (FUTAJ) seems to have plunged into uncertainty again due to the Lok Sabha election scheduled in April – May.
FUTAJ General Secretary Dr Raj Kumar (Ranchi University) announced the conduct of a poll of the state’s teachers’ body in March- April. Since preparation for the Lok Sabha election has started, teacher leaders said the FUTAJ election is impossible before June-July.
Jharkhand’s universities and college teachers
The election of FUTAJ, a frontal organisation of Jharkhand’s universities and college teachers, has been due since 2019. President Dr NK Singh (Sido Kanhu Murmu University, Dumka) and some office bearers have already retired.
The first election of FUTAJ was held at Dumka in 2016, and Dr NK Singh and Dr Mithilesh Kumar Singh (Ranchi University) were elected president and general secretary, respectively. All office bearers were elected unanimously, and the election was held only for the post of president, in which Dr NK Singh of SKMU Dumka defeated Dr Balbir Singh Sidhu of Vinob Bhave University.
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No university came forward to host the FUTAJ Poll
Dr N K Singh argued that no university body accepted responsibility for holding the poll, so the FUTAJ election could not be conducted until 2023.
In 2022, the then general secretary of Binod Bihari Mahto Koylanchal University (BBMKU, Dhanbad), Dr Himanshu Shekhar Choudhary, came forward to host the FUTAJ election, due to upheaval in the university he could, not able to do during his regime.
However, newly elected BBMKU general secretary Dr Amulya Suman Beck said he stands by his predecessor’s promise.
Though no individual from any university has announced his candidature for any post in the FUTAJ election, leading teachers’ leaders of different universities have shortlisted some names for consensus.
The names making rounds in universities circles for president/ general secretary posts are Dr Raj Kumar of Ranchi University, Dr Himanshu Shekhar Choudhary, Dr BN Singh, Dr Amulya Suman Beck of BBMKU Dhanbad, Dr Santosh Sil of SKMU Dumka, Dr Kaushlendra Kumar, Dr KK Gupta, Dr Binod Ranjan, Dr Sukalyan Moitra, Dr Subodh Singh of Vinoba Bhave University Hazaribagh.
Dr SK Singh and Dr Indal Paswan of Kolhan University Chaibasa are front runners. An ex-office bearer of FUTAJ said Dr Rajendra Bharti of KU could have been a unanimous presidential candidate but left the university body.
A FUTAJ outgoing office-bearer said that this time, they would try to associate teachers of Nilamber Pitamber University who skipped last time.
