MSU officials confirmed that the letter of termination of the duo came to the varsity late in the evening.

Prof Ramesh Goyal, MSU Vice-Chancellor (V-C) said: “A letter of termination of Ajay Joshi and Mehul Lakhani has come to the office. However, the reasons are unknown.”

Meanwhile, sources said that the move was taken because Joshi, the Vice President of Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) unit, South Gujarat and Lakhani, a well known student leader from the year 2000-02 were allegedly associated with Ashwin Patel, who is the general secretary of VHP’s Ahmedabad city unit. Patel was arrested by the Gandhiangar police on October 28.

According to the police, Patel was charged with sending derogatory SMSes against Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his government soon after the July 26 blasts.

Varsity authorities said: “There is a possibility that Joshi was ousted after he misled the syndicate on performing arts issue.”

Joshi, who is an advocate by profession in Vadodara, said: “It could be because I am affiliated with the VHP.

I attended a meeting where we opposed Patel’s arrest. It was the government’s wish to appoint me as syndicate member. Now, I have been ousted. But I have no problems with it.”