Those acting high and mighty of the cooperative sector have bitten the dust in Bihar in the recently concluded elections of District Central Co-operative Bank, according to a late report reaching Indian Cooperative.
Some of the vanquished ones are said to be occupying the top posts for a number of years. A few of them are also on the board of Biscomaun, of which Sunil Kumar Singh is the Chairman.
The most interesting result came from Nalanda where Jitendra Kumar a JDU MLA who lorded it over the Nalanda DCCB for a long time lost to a dark horse Amrendra Kumar Munna. Amrendra is a simple man with little resource to combat Kumar and yet he won. It was the sheer anger against Jitendra Kumar that saw his decimation, said insiders who are in know of things.
Frequent foreign trips by these leaders were one of the poll campaign issues, they point out. Using poor members’ fund they go abroad and indulge in all kinds of luxuries which are being resented by common members of co-op societies now, said a number of cooperators from the state. Travel allowance, DA and other petty issues grabbed by these co-operative leaders were also the poll issues this time, they asserted.
Other major upsets were the defeat of Ram Kalevar Singh from Samastipur DCCB, Navendra Jha from Madhubani DCCB and Manoj Kumar Singh from Siwan DCCB. Among these three are on the board of Biscomaun and are considered close to Sunil Kumar Singh.
The most notable among those who romped home are Amrendra Singh from the Muzaffarpur, Mahesh Rai from Gopalganj and some others.
Recently Bihar Cooperative Minister Rana Randhir Singh had called a meeting of the newly elected Chairmen of District Central Cooperative Banks at the Chief Minister Secretariat, Patna, as reported in these columns.
There are 22 District Central Cooperative Banks in Bihar and all the DCCBs except Aurangabad went to the polls on 18th January. These 22 DCCBs have around 301 branches. More than 5 lakh farmers are associated with these banks in one way or the other.
