Tuesday’s elections of NAFED’s Board of Directors not only saw the defeat of some high-profile cooperators but also signaled a shift in power from the Bijender-Chandra Pal camp to the newly emerging axis of BJP cooperators represented by Mohanbhai Kumderia, Vishal Singh, and others. All six seats were won by the BJP camp.
“I have lost and yet not lost,” said Biscomaun Chairman Sunil Singh, explaining the role of BJP’s top leadership in ensuring his defeat in the NAFED elections concluded on Tuesday at the NCUI headquarters in Delhi.
Explaining further, Sunil gave details of the votes he polled from across the states for his candidature. “I got the majority votes from the Eastern Zone as those who owe allegiance to the purer form of cooperative saw nothing other than the interest of the sector,” he stated.
Giving an example, Sunil said that while he got 45 votes from the trio of Bihar-Bengal-Nagaland, Vishal got just 16. Similarly, Sunil claims to have got the maximum votes from the states of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Haryana, Punjab, etc.
But sadly for him, the highest number of votes were in Gujarat, where the BJP leadership worked hard to support the official candidate Vishal Singh. “Even in Gujarat, I got 60 votes out of 278 cast,” said Sunil, underlining the fact that the order of the BJP whip was not fully carried out.
Though the so-called whip was issued across the country, it was most effective in Gujarat. Sunil claimed that Amit Shah himself took an interest in the elections and asked cooperators of Gujarat to ensure the victory of the BJP panel. “I have lost to Shah, not to Vishal,” said Sunil, taking solace from his defeat.
It is a fact that the defeat of the candidates of the other panel represented by the non-BJP camp was not by a big margin. Mangilal Danga lost by just 2 votes while others, including Ajay Rai, lost by no more than 20-25 votes.
“Even I, despite the farman of the most powerful man of BJP, got 192 votes and thus salute the voters for their support to the spirit of the cooperative movement,” said Sunil. Vishal had got 263 votes.
Results from other constituencies have largely aligned with the predictions by the Indian Cooperative. The other winners are Keda Aher from the Western Zone, Ram Prakash Chaudhary, Ramesh Kumar from the Northern Zone, Raghuvir Singh Raghuvanshi from the Central Zone, and Siddappa Hoti for the Southern Zone.
