Mild-mannered, soft spoken and even-tempered –that is how friends describe Jyotindra Mehta–the man elected to the highest post in the Sahakar Bharati on Saturday evening. He was elected National President unanimously.
The position of General Secretary of Sahakar Bharati was bagged by Professor Uday Joshi. The outgoing President Satish Marathe was elevated to the post of patron of Sahakar Bharati.
Three Directors proposed his name while two seconded the proposal. “There was no other name and he was declared elected unanimously”, said Bharat Kapadai a close aide to Jyotindra Mehta on the phone.
Though Kapadia did not admit that there was any race for the top post in the Sahakar Bharati, Indian Cooperative has learnt from sources that there were two more names and intense backroom negotiations had set the scene for Mehta’s unanimous election.
The election took place during the three-day national conference of Sahakar Bharati which started Friday and concluded Sunday in Ahmadabad. About 2500 delegates, from all States and Union Territories, covering 400
Districts and all major segments of the cooperative Sectors attended the Conference. The conference also passed resolution rejecting the RBI’s proposal of conversion of Urban Co-op Banks, writes Marathe on his FB wall.
Dr R Vaidyanathan Professor at Indian Institute of Management Bengaluru delivered the Keynote Address.
Sahakar Bharati is the cooperative organ of RSS, which, according to its website, has created a huge network of cooperatives across the country. While it worked without attracting any media glare in the past, its current proximity with the ruling dispensation has made it -important.
The increasing importance of Sahakar Bharati could be gauged from the fact that while Union Minister Ravi Shankar comes to inaugurate its national conference started last week, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh comes to attend the Valedictory. And there is no count of smaller fries jostling to attend the function; a sharp contrast to the NCUI functions where none of these VIPs bothers to turn up.
Mehta is often remembered for his constructive cooperation for his role in the meeting of the Governing Council of the apex co-op body NCUI unlike some of his friends who as government nominees are a pain in the neck for many.
During the IFFCO Lecture in Delhi on Friday the outgoing President Satish Marathe had told that he (Marathe) was going to step down this time. “I have been there for two terms and before that I had been its General Secretary for nine years; it was a long innings indeed”, he said.
