Chandigarh, July 25 -- Already hanging fire for eight months, the Panjab University (PU) senate elections are set to be delayed further following the abrupt resignation of Vice-President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar, who also served as the university's chancellor. The term of the PU senate, the university's apex decision-making body, ended on October 31, 2024. Since then, the university has been functioning without the elected body, with key powers temporarily delegated to the vice-chancellor and other officials. As per university rules, elections can be held only after final approval from the chancellor. However, despite preparing and submitting a tentative election schedule to the chancellor's office on at least four occasions over the past eight months, no approval was granted, officials confirmed. A senior varsity official said with Dhankhar's resignation, the posts of Vice-President and university chancellor had fallen vacant and will lead to further delay. "The condition that the senate election schedule must be approved by the chancellor before it is announced still stands. Therefore, we will have to wait for the new Vice-President to be elected," the official said.Former senator IS Sidhu, who was among the senators protesting over the election delay, said they will wait for the new Vice-President's appointment before pushing for a resolution. "On October 31, it will be a year since PU has been functioning without a senate. So, we are hopeful that elections can be declared before that," he said. If the new Vice-President also fails to give the nod, he said, protests could take place again. Meanwhile, university officials recalled Dhankhar's involvement with PU fondly. He attended the varsity's convocations in 2023 and 2024, as well as Global Alumni Meets held in 2022, 2023 and 2024. His first visit to the campus was during the Global Alumni Meet in November 2022, which also marked his maiden visit to Chandigarh. Vice-Chancellor Renu Vig, who earned Dhankhar's repeated praise for being PU's first woman V-C, said it was through his personal intervention that the university secured a Rs.281-crore grant from the central government. A large portion of this was used to pay the Rs.175-crore pending arrears following implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission from January 1, 2016. PU registrar YP Verma added that Dhankhar took a personal interest in the university's alumni activities. At every Global Alumni Meet, he would express disappointment in the underwhelming contribution of PU's vast and influential alumni network. A former senator said unlike previous Vice-Presidents, Dhankhar engaged consistently with PU, and his regular visits boosted donations significantly....