M S Talwar, Ex Director Cooperatives is a busy man today as he has been appointed returning officer for the election to the board of apex organization of fisheries cooperatives FISHCOFED. The election is scheduled for 17th January and quite unexpectedly, there are lots of activities.
Though there is six zones but five zones are active-they are east ,west, south, central and north east. Northern zone is dormant with little activities. Two directors from each zone are to be elected. The chairman will be elected on the same day in the afternoon.
Fishcofed is seen as poor cousin of giant cooperatives such as IFFCO or Kribhco. But this time there is renewed interest in the election as it has registered a turn around and has earned profit.
There has been last minute scramble to enter in the voter list by some people. Petitions were also filed in the court in Nagpur so that the election is postponed. But the court rejected the application and ruled that election to the Board will take place on schedule.
Naim Ansari, the incumbent chairman will be re-elected or not-is a big question. The chance of his re election, at the moment looks rather weak. There would be three nominated members who may support him. But there will also be ten elected members who in the face of election may not support an imposed government candidate like Ansari.
Ansari belongs to Sharad Pawar’s party and can be sure of support of government nominated directors but the ten elected director may not fall in line unless Ansari manages them beforehand. How much has he done so is anybody’s guess. There are about 37 voters out of which a majority will vote this time.
Readers may be aware that Naim Ansari was the vice president when K Krishna of Andhra Pradesh, the chairman passed away. Ansari was made Chairman by default. But will he be lucky again? Watch out these lines to find out.