VADODARA/ ANAND: For the first time in the history Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Limited — popularly known as Amul Dairy, election was held for one of the top posts of the co-operative.
Even as Ramsinh Parmar got elected uncontested as chairman of Amul Dairy on Friday, suspense on who will occupy the post of dairy’s vice-chairman will continue for at least a month.
In Amul Dairy’s history, chairman and vice-chairman have always got elected unanimously by the board of directors. This time Ramsinh, a former Congress MLA, who had joined BJP in 2017, got elected uncontested as chairman.
But the post of vice-chairman saw a contest between dairy’s incumbent vice-chairman and Congress MLA from Borsad, Rajendrasinh Parmar and BJP’s former MLA from Balasinor, Rajesh Pathak alias Pappu Pathak.
The fact that election was held for one of the posts adds to the series of twists and turns that the dairy has witnessed in the recent times.
Total 18 members including 13 elected board members, three government nominees, one representative of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) and district co-operative registrar participated in the meeting called for the elections.
Just a day before on Thursday, the Gujarat High Court (HC) directed that while the polls can be held as scheduled, the results should not be declared until the next hearing – November 24.
HC had directed that the votes cast by three state-nominated directors in the board should be kept in a separate sealed cover.
HC intervened after Congress-backed members of the board including Rajendrasinh, Anand’s Congress MLA Kanti Sodha Parmar and Sanjay Patel filed a petition challenging the appointment of the three directors, who they claim are affiliated to BJP, as state government’s nominees ahead of the election.
The petitioner have alleged that as BJP-affiliated members could win only couple of seats during the election of board in August, they are trying to create an artificial majority to tilt the elections for the top posts in their favour.
The petitioners have urged the HC to issue directives through which appointments of government nominated directors is quashed.