The election results of Gujarat based Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union announced on Monday proved once again that Congress can have an invincible bastion of support.
Out of 12 seats of the elected directors, as reported earlier in these columns, 8 were captured by Congress and the remaining four by Bhartiya Janata Party. Amul is a milk union of dairy co-op titan GCMMF, which otherwise has BJP’s dominance.
The outgoing Chairman and former congress MLA Ramsinh Parmar was earlier elected unopposed as no candidates filed nomination papers against him.
Interestingly, the candidate named Jitendra Kumar Patel who had filed his nominations against the outgoing Vice-Chairman Rajendrasinh Parmar from Borsad block had withdrawn his name prior to the day of voting. Patel asked his supporters to vote in favor of Parmar who got 93 votes.
Though the date for electing Chairman and Vice-Chairman has not been announced, it is being told that the process of electing them will be carried out in a couple of days.
The high-profile candidates who have won the union elections are three sitting MLAs including Kantibhai Sodha Parmar (Congress MLA) from Anand block in Anand constituency, Rajendrasinh Parmar (Congress MLA) from Borsad block in Anand constituency and Rajesh Pathak (BJP MLA) from Balasinor block in Mahisagar district of Gujarat as its directors.
Talking to Indian Cooperative the outgoing Chairman Ramsinh Parmar said, “It was not a fight between Congress and BJP. Members have cast their votes on the issue of development; they have not voted on party lines. We will work in the interest of members and dairy”, he added.
There are reports that a few candidates have won with a very narrow margin of votes. In the Petlad block Vipin Patel got 45 votes whereas his rival Tejas Kumar Patel bagged 43 votes. The total voters were 88. The winning candidate is a newcomer. In Kapadvanj block in Kheda district reserved for women category, Sharadaben Patel received 52 votes whereas her rival Vinaben got 47 votes. The total voters in this block were 100.
Kantibhai Sodha Parmar, congress MLA defeated his rival Govind Parmar (BJP MLA) from Umreth block in Anand district who got only four votes. Kanti Parmar received 41 votes whereas Govind parmar bagged 37 votes. The total voters from Anand and Umreth block were 104.
Besides, from Matar block in Kheda district a candidate Sanjay Patel has defeated BJP MLA Kesar Singh Solanki of Matar assembly in Kheda district and the outgoing director Patel got 47 votes and Solanki bagged 26 votes. The total voters from Matar were 88 and three candidates were fighting the election from this block.
The names of winning candidates include Ramsinh Parmar (Unopposed), Rajendrasinh Parmar (93 votes, Borsad block) Kanti Sodha Parmar, (41, Anand), Sitaben (73, Khambhat), Vipul Patel (45, Petlad), Rajesh Pathak, (62, Balasinor), Ghelabhai, (48, Kathlal), Sharadben Patel, (52, Kapadvanj), Juan Chauhan, (50, Mehmedabad), Sanjay Patel (47, Matar), Vipul Patel, (68, Nadiad), Shabhe Parmar, (41, Virpur).
Readers would recall that 31 candidates were in the fray for 11 seats of directors on the board. The directors come from 12 blocks located in Anand, Kheda and Mahisagar district of Gujarat.