In an interesting turn of events, the results of the NAFED elections at the NCUI headquarters in Delhi have produced unexpected outcomes. The most surprising of all was the defeat of Nafed’s outgoing Vice-President Sunil Singh. Singh was defeated by the current NCCF Chairman and Ajit Singh’s son Vishal Singh.
Results from other constituencies have largely aligned with the predictions by the Indian Cooperative. The other winners are Keda Aher from Western Zone, Ram Prakash Chaudhary, Ramesh Kumar from Northern Zone, Raghuvir Singh Raghuvanshi from Central Zone and Siddappa Hoti for Southern Zone.
Fighting from the Eastern Zone, Vishal Singh won by a significant margin. He defeated heavyweight cooperative leader and RJD MLC Sunil Kumar Singh. Vishal Singh received 263 votes, while Sunil Singh received 191 votes.
Cooperators say that the fight in the Eastern Zone resembled Lok Sabha elections. While the BJP put its entire weight behind Vishal, Sunil had the duo of Bijender and Chandra Pal Singh to bank on. Insiders say the fight escalated into one between the BJP and RJD, with Gujarat, which had the maximum number of votes, toeing the BJP’s party lines and voting Sunil out.
As predicted in this column, the Western Zone seat was won by BJP man Keda Aher with a huge margin. He defeated Sanjay Holkar and Sushma Bhoite. Aher received 283 votes whereas Holkar got 201 votes.
The Rajasthan seat, which falls in the Northern Zone, was won by Ram Prakash Choudhary with only two votes. Chaudhary received 204 votes whereas IFFCO former Director Mangilal Danga got 202 votes, who backed by the outgoing Chairman Bijendra Singh and Dr. Chandrapal Singh Yadav. From this seat, the highest eight candidates were in the fray.
Besides, the other seat in the Northern Zone was won by Ramesh Kumar, defeated the outgoing director Jagjit Singh Sangwan, who moved to the Delhi High Court to stop Nafed’s election. Kumar got 250 votes whereas Sangwan received 212 votes.
The Central Zone seat was won by Madhya Pradesh Cooperator Raghuvir Singh Raghuvanshi, defeating his close rival Ajay Rai. Raghuvanshi received 251 votes, whereas Rai got 216 votes.
The last seat, Karnataka, falls in the Southern Zone, where Siddappa Hoti secured a berth on the board of Nafed, defeating his closest rival Sanjay Patil.
The above results are unofficial and are yet to be declared officially after the nod of the Cooperative Election Authority.
The election was held for six seats at the NCUI headquarters, for which 27 candidates were in the fray. On the
day of the election, the NCUI headquarters was filled with cooperators who came from long distances to support their respective candidates.
It bears recalling that the Nafed board consists of 21 directors, out of which 15 candidates were elected unopposed. Winners include the outgoing Chairman Bijender Singh, Dr. Chandrapal Singh Yadav, Mohan Kundariya, NCCF Chairman Vishal Singh, Ashok Thakur (Government Nominee), Sekhar Geddam from AP State Co-op Mktg Fed, Deepak Soni from Chhattisgarh Fed, Jethabhai Bharwad from Gujarat Fed, J. Ganesan from Haryana Fed, Guranatha Reddy from Karnataka Fed, Alok Kumar Singh from MP Fed, Tarlok Singh from Punjab Fed, Sudhansh Pant from Rajasthan Fed, Mara Ganga Reddy from Telangana Fed, and Rakesh Gupta from UP Co-op Fed.
The meeting of the newly elected Board of Directors of NAFED will begin at 10:00 am on 22nd May 2024 to elect office-bearers at the NCUI’s meeting hall.
