Has NCCF election been annulled?

The second half of Wednesday and the whole of Thursday the cooperative grapevine had it that the government had once again superceded the Board of the National Consumer Cooperative Federation Board annulling the elections held a couple of months ago.

Managing Director Mr P K Singh however denied any such move while talking to the Indian Cooperative correspondent Rohit Gupta. But rumour mill was still at work and name of M K Parida taking over as Administrator gained ground by the evening.

Unconfirmed sources say the government nominee Mr Vijay , a close aide of Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has complained he was not present at the time of the election of the Chairman. Citing rules, he is reported to have demanded to be informed about the AGM at least 15 days in advance.

Rumour mill spins all kinds of stories about various objections being raised to the re-election of former Chairman Virendra Singh as Director in the newly appointed Board. It is being argued as a CBI investigation into his previous term is in progress, he cannot be re-elected.

A third charge being hurled at the current Chairman Bijender Singh is he is yet to be cleared of the CBI investigation in the Nafed tie-up loss scam.

Surprising though it may sound, Mr S D Induria, the Retuning Officer of the election who was appointed not by the Board but by the government has reportedly supported the statement of complainant Vijay Kumar about his not being present at the time of chairman’s election.

When Indian Cooperative contacted Bijender Singh to know his reaction, he chimed with MD’s line and said he had no information about any such move. Bombay-based Vice-Chairman Virendra Singh also echoed the similar view.

Readers would be aware that the election of NCCF conducted in February elected Bijender Singh, Virendra Singh and Chandra Pal Singh’s son Yash Pal Singh Yadav to the Board. Vishal Singh, however failed to make it. The Board had two of Minister’s close associates-one of them Vijay Kumar a chairman of a land mortgage cooperative in Bihar and the other Ajay Kumar a former journalist doubling as national spokesperson of LJP.