Banas Dairy polls: Shankar Chaudhary, supporters win uncontested

Palanpur: Banas Dairy’s chairman and senior BJP leader Shankar Chaudhary registered a clean sweep on Wednesday as a panel supported by him won all the 16 seats of board of directors of Asia’s largest cooperative dairy unopposed.
Elections for the 16 seats of elected representatives in the dairy’s board was scheduled on October 19 while counting and declaration of votes was scheduled on October 20.
It is worth mentioning here that eight members had already won uncontested as no other candidate had filed nomination. The dairy will have a ‘samras’ board as the remaining candidates have withdrawn from the poll fray.
“Since, all the 16 seats have been won unopposed there is no need for election now,” said election officer F A Babi.
While 15 candidates including dairy’s former chairman Parthi Bhatol who had submitted their nominations against Chaudhary-backed panel had already withdrawn from the poll fray, dairy’s vice-chairman Mavji Desai, also withdrew his candidature on Wednesday paving way for a clear victory of Chaudhary’s panel.
Chaudhary had taken over as chairman of Banas Dairy in 2015 as eight candidates backed by him had won the last elections of board of directors. The camp of Bhatol, who had remained as chairman for more than two decades, had bagged just three seats.
The candidates who have won unopposed include Chaudhary from Radhanpur block, Ragha Aayar from Santalpur, Anda Patel from Kankrej, Dinesh Patel (Bhatol) from Vadgam, Parthi Chaudhary from Dantiwada, Joita Patel from Dhanera, Ishwar Patel from Deodar, Samat Patel from Bhabhar, Raymal Patel from Vav, Parbat Patel from Tharad, Dilipsinh Barad from Danta, Bhava Rabari from Amirgadh, Bharat Patel from Palanpur, Dhuda Patel from Lakhni, Mulji Patel from Suigam and Ramji Gujor from Deesa.