Nagpur: It has become a battle of prestige, one-upmanship and the old guard versus new blood. The Nagpur University's Senate elections are going down to the wire. Switching over camps, poaching of candidates and keeping your cards close to the chest may keep everyone guessing who is representing which side, till the end.Therefore circumstances and smear campaigns in the run up to the Saturday's big fight called for damage control, which ultimately became an exercise of gaining superiority.Three of the four groups, who have field candidates for the statutory body polls, rolled out the red carpet for their rank and file on Wednesday evening. Each claimed that the other followed suit only after news of their function became public. A common timing — 6.30pm — too made things difficult for fence sitters, who had to finally take a stand.The presence of Chandansingh Rotele, who has been elected unopposed on Senate from principal category, at Secular's meet turned a few heads since he is yet to make his affiliation clear. Rotele has so far been feted by all the four groups.While Secular panel led by Ved Prakash Mishra and DK Agrawal and Baban Taywade's Young Teachers' Association's (YTA) arrangement sent out the message of extravaganza, the former mayor Kalpana Pande's Shikshan Manch showed austerity in holding its meet at Lokanchi Shala in Reshimbagh.To bolster their prospects, the Seculars roped in MLC Prakash Gajbhiye. Manch invited MLCs Anil Sole, NG Ganar and ex-pro-VC Gaurishankar Parasher to motivate members and candidates."Didn't see such level of campaigning by any panel in my decade old career," coordinator of Secular Panel Abhijeet Wanjari told the gathering at Chitnavis Centre in Civil Lines.Asked about Secular's grand function, coordinator of YTA Girish Pandav said, the main difference between them and others was that they didn't hold a dinner. "Our supporters came on their own without being lured by dinner promise. The event was mainly to inform voters and candidates about the polling process," Pandav said. YTA's meet was held in the new hall of Dhanwate National College.Wanjari said the arrangements made by his panel were simple and all members contributed to fund the event.Just like Secular and YTA, Manch coordinator Pande said there was no question of wooing members on the promise of dinner. "They are all teachers and funding the campaigns. We are running the drive on chai. Today's dinner too came from common contribution," she said.Anil Dhage, former secretary of Nagpur University Teachers's Association (NUTA), said there were no plans for any gathering by his group. "We are the only one to bring out a manifesto of what we intend to do and what we have done. We believe elections must be fought on minimum expenditure. Ours is the poorest since we depend on self-funding by candidates."

Stay updated with all the Latest Nagpur headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.