Cochin University of Science and Technology senate seat ‘left vacant for Sunny’

KOCHI: The State Government in an unprecedented move has left one of the 14 senate member seats in CUSAT vacant while making its nominations the other day.

This move is believed to be the last attempt to accommodate controversial businessman Sunny P Jose who has failed to get the nomination of the Governor as the industry representative to the Syndicate for a second term.

Sunny P Jose had locked horns with Hibi Eden MLA when both were Syndicate members and over a dozen MLAs led by Hibi are understood to have recently petitioned Governor P Sathasivam against making him his nominee in the Syndicate.

This was after the State Government recommended Sunny Jose's name along with that of George Paul, managing director of Synthite Group, as a panel for the Governor to pick his nominee to the Cusat Syndicate. The Governor finally rejected Sunny and picked George Paul.

However, the drama seems to be extending with the Government not yet making its nomination to five Syndicate seats and one Senate seat. If Sunny P Jose becomes a member of the Senate, he will have strong chances of making it to the Syndicate in one of the existing vacancies, which he is understood to be gunning for. The one vacancy that remains in the senate belongs to industry and commerce which makes his task easy.

“The whole nomination has been done in a haphazard manner. People without any standing in their respective fields have been nominated. In earlier periods, this was not the case,” said Cochin University Teachers Association former president Dr K Sreekumar.

The 13 persons who have now made it to the Senate are Ernakulam Education Deputy Director M K Shinemon, N L Sivakumar (Agriculture University), Saran Kartha, MD, CMRL, KK Kabir Kadappalli (Techno Cartons, Kalamassery), Antony Thomas (Kerala Chamber of Commerce), Dr K Hariharan (MES Engg College Kunnukara), K K Radhakrishnan (Maharaja’s Technical Institute, Thrissur) and higher education sector representatives M K Muammed Aslam, Dr Mehmuda Begum.