Over 800 eligible voters will cast their votes to elect the managing committee of Surat based Sumul Dairy on Friday (tomorrow) which is one of the milk unions of GCMMF that sells its products under the brand name of Amul.
The board comprises 16 elected directors but election will be on 14 seats because two directors have been earlier elected unopposed.
It bears recall that the outgoing Vice-Chairman Riteshbhai Vasava from Umarpada Taluka and the outgoing Director Bharatsinh Solanki from Palsana Taluka have been elected unopposed because there are no rivals. These two directors are in the Mansinhbhai Patel panel.
The election is interesting because the leaders of two different panels who are in race are the staunch leaders of BJP. Even BJP State President C R Patil failed to resolve internal differences between the two.
One panel is being led by the outgoing Chairman Rajesh Pathak and the other is being presided over by Mansinhbhai Patel who is former Chairman of the dairy cooperative.
The result will be announced on 9th August. Surat Deputy Collector has been assigned the job of Returning officer.
Voting centres have been set up. There are sixteen Talukas in Surat and Tapi District and only one director will be elected from each Taluka.
Despite several meetings held between Gujarat BJP State President C R Patil and the BJP candidate fighting for the election of Sumul Dairy for mutual understanding, there was no positive outcome. The list after withdrawal clearly shows there will be intense fights over 14 seats.
It is seen that the outgoing Chairman Rajesh Pathak failed to enthuse the team because several present directors of the board are against him and are fighting the election from another panel.
Several contesting Directors have alleged that the outgoing Chairman Rajesh Pathak is holding the dairy under his autocratic control. The term of the Board will be five years.