Chandigarh, April 14 -- As Panjab University (PU) gears up to finally hold its long-delayed senate elections, the registered graduates constituency - the largest and most contentious of the lot - has recorded 54,645 fresh enrolments. With the polls scheduled on September 20, authorities are already in the thick of the verification process, spanning eligibility checks, data entry and address corrections, which officials say will take at least 45 more days to complete. The registration drive, which concluded last Friday after the deadline was extended twice, saw enrolments trickle in over a drawn out window stretching from February to April. PU registrar YP Verma said "The university is targeting May 30 to complete scrutiny and publish the final list ofeligible graduate voters". Eligibility norms had specified that applicants must hold a degree from PU with a minimum standing of five years from the year of passing making graduates up to the class of 2021 eligible for the current cycle. Those holding a master's or doctoral degree from PU are exempt from the five year condition. Applicants were asked to also submit proof of qualification, pay the prescribed registration fee, and clear any outstanding dues, as defaulters are barred from exercising their voting rights. The existing electoral roll, carried over from the 2021 senate elections, stands at approximately 3.68 lakh registered graduates, a figure that will swell further once the fresh 54,645 enrolments clear verification and are added to the list. Officials noted that the previous Senate elections, held in 2021, had similarly seen around 50,000 fresh enrolments. Yet, the headline number obscures a deeper problem, there is no clear record of how many within this pool are active voters. Once registered, a graduate remains on the electoral roll indefinitely, regardless of whether they vote. The rolls have never undergone a comprehensive revision, a lacuna that has drawn sharp criticism, particularly during the senate protests, when former fellows flagged that candidates are forced to canvass through swathes of outdated and inactive voter data, making the exercise both tedious and inefficient. University officials have acknowledged the problem but stopped short of any commitment ahead of the current cycle, maintaining that a full revision would require significant manpower and administrative resources. Officials indicated that a roll revision, while under consideration, is more likely to be taken up ahead of the next election cycle rather than the current one. The university had originally set February 23 as the enrolment deadline, extending it first to March 30 and then to April 10, before the process finally closed last week. With verification now underway, the countdown to September 20 and PU's delayed senate elections has formally begun....