Ex-minister Chudasama among 2 new trustees of Gujarat Vidyapith
Former Gujarat education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama and Srikrishna Kulkarni have been unanimously elected as the new trustees of Gujarat Vidyapith in Ahmedabad Thursday. They were elected by the Gujarat Vidyapith Mandal or board of trustees headed by Governor Acharya Devvrat who is also the Chancellor of the varsity.
Srikrishna is the chairperson of the board of governors of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He is also a member of the National Executive Committee for the 150th Birth Anniversary Celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi and is the son of Gandhi’s granddaughter Sumitraben Kulkarni.
On January 2, the Gandhi-founded Gujarat Vidyapith had appointed four new trustees — Gafurbhai Bilakhia, Rajshree Birla, Dilip Thaker and Harshad Patel. This came more than two-and-a-half months after eight of 24 trustees of the varsity resigned citing “unethical use of power” in Devvrat’s appointment. They alleged “it was neither spontaneous nor the unanimous decision of the board of trustees, but under crass political pressure”.
On January 15, Dr Rajendra Khimani stepped down as the Vice-Chancellor to the Chancellor after which Devvrat appointed Prof Bharat Joshi as incharge VC.
According to the Gujarat Vidyapith rules, it has 25 trustees, including five life-time trustee members. Currently there is only one lifetime member — Narsinhbhai Hathila.
