With the filing of more than 35 nominations on the closing day on Sunday, it is obvious that IFFCO elections are going to see unprecedented contests. With several new faces taking plunge, a top IFFCO official said on condition of anonymity“ I can see contests in at least seven seats; it is going to be damn exciting”.
On the top of the list of those trying their luck is Ajay Patel-the Ahmadabad cooperator who is pursuing the criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi in the wake of the latter’s allegation of scam of more than Rs 745 crore in ADCB during demonetization.
There is a likelihood of contest in Gujarat where Dileep Sanghani, Jayesh Radadia and Ajay Patel are some of the names who have filed nominations. Ajay Patel, who is chairman of both Ahmadabad DCCB and Gujarat State Co-op Bank is said be a sidekick of BJP President Amit Shah. Sanghani is Chairman of NAFSCOB and Nafed.
The contest is also going to be keen in Maharashtra where six cooperators have filed their nominations so far. Some of them are Ashok Jagtap, Rajendra Dev Rao, Vilas Rao aka B K Patil, Sanjay Murlidhar Pawar, Dr. Advay Hiray Patil and Sadhana Yadav. Maharashtra tops in being the state from where maximum number of nominations have been received.
There are new faces from Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. They are Dr Amit Pratap Singh, a Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh, Mr Ramadhar and Manju Singh Deo from Chhattisgarh. As predicted earlier, the change of the govts in these states has thrown up new names.
Other new faces are Balbir Singh from Uttar Pradesh, Uttamrao Patil from Karnataka, and K P Baby from Kerala. Uttam Patil is bracing to take on Srinivas Gowda.
The contest is also keen for women seats as more than three candidates have decided to be in the fray. They are Sadhana Yadav, Dr Varsha Kasturta and Jyoti Ram Rao-all from Maharashtra. Manju Singh Deo, another women
from Chhattisgarh is also there in the fry but she comes from co-op society.
While Ovr Ramachandran has K P Baby as his opponent, Sunil Khatri is taking on the former minister Prahalad Singh. The entry of several new faces in RGB has given a boost to Khatri’s campaign, sources say.
Three Directors of the outgoing Board, have however not filed their nominations for one reason or the other. They are Trimbakrao G. Sirsath, Ramakant Bhargava and Shish Pal.
The likely contest could be in the following seats-Maharashtra, women seats, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana-Delhi, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu-Kerala.
There is a lone nomination from Telangana, Devendra Reddy. From Andhra Pradesh, A.Praveen Reddy has filed nomination. From Odisha there are two nominations- Simachal Padhy and Chandra Kumar Purohit.
Despite IFFCO’s efforts, there has been no nomination from the north-east. The final list would be published on 9th May after the scrutiny and withdrawal. The voting would take place on 10th May.
(With inputs from Rohit Gupta)
