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.
The election is likely to be interesting. The voting is scheduled to take place on 7th August 2020 where over 850 candidates are eligible to cast their votes. The result will be announced on 9th August. The nominations for the election were filed on 23rd July.
In the Sumul election two different panel candidates are in the race. 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.
Interestingly, both are the staunch leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party. A few members associated with the party said that the BJP top leadership has failed to resolve the internal differences between the two.
Meanwhile, 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.
Soon after the final list was released, talking to Indian Cooperative one of the outgoing directors Nareshbhai Patel from the Mansinhbhai Patel panel said, “We will defeat all the candidates standing from the Rajesh Pathak Panel who always tries to run the dairy arbitrarily. He is used to taking all the credit and is holding the dairy under his autocratic control “, he accused the outgoing Chairman.
”My constituency i.e. Valod Taluka its total vote share is 41 and I am sure I will receive more than 30 votes. Over 7 directors of the present board are in our panel and only a few directors are with the outgoing chairman. Besides, the current director Jitendrabhai Upadhyay and Anantbhai Patel are not contesting the election this time.
It is being said that Mansinhbhai Patel is in hospital due to the corona symptoms but is controlling its panel from there only. When India Cooperative contacted him for his comments, he slammed the phone saying he is in hospital.
It is being learnt that the Sumul Dairy board consists of 16 directors. There are nine and seven Talukas in Surat and Tapi District respectively and only one director elected from each Talukas. Voting centres have been made. Surat Deputy Collector has been assigned the job of Returning officer.
The term will be five years. Sumul is the one of the milk unions of GCMMF which sells its products under the brand name of Amul.
