Jyotindra Mehta is the new NAFCUB President

R Gandhi, Deputy Governor of RBI may not have scripted it but his recommendation has cost Mukund Abhyankar his job as the President of the apex body of urban cooperative banks NAFCUB. Jyotindra Mehta a strong man from Rajkot was elected President in a fiercely contested election on Sunday at the NCUI headquarters in Delhi.

Mehta who seems to be on the winning streak was elected President of Sahakar Bharati recently.

Mehta bagged 14 votes while runner up Mr Manam Anjaneyulu could only get support of five sitting Directors- mostly close to Abhyankar.” I was not in the race and I have nothing against the democratically elected president. I am waiting for the court verdict”, Abhyankar told Indian Cooperative.

The election saw the presence of many stalwarts from the urban cooperative bank sector including HK Patil as well as NCUI President Chandra Pal Singh Yadav. The latter, however, did not participate and vote in the elections.

“I have nothing against anyone as both Mehta and Abhyankar are close to me but I was in a fix. I feel there is neither provision nor tradition of no-confidence motion in cooperatives. I did not wish to say much as the matter is subjudice”, Yadav told Indian Cooperative.

It may be recalled that a no-confidence motion was passed in the 25th February meeting of the NAFCUB Board removing Mukund Abhyankar as the President. Abhyankar went to court protesting the decision. Meanwhile, Nafcub went ahead with the election preparations. Later the court allowed it to conduct elections saying the results would be subject to the court verdict.

Abhyankar was removed owing to his presence in the Gandhi Committee which recommended UCBs could be converted into commercial entities. There is a conflict of interest and this amounts to weakening the urban cooperative movement, one of the Directors said on condition of anonymity.

Abhyankar defended himself by saying he dissented from the recommendations.” But I demanded a level playing field for UCBs vis a vis commercial banks. RBI says in that case it would like to control the UCBs completely,” Abhaynkar said.

Writing on his FB wall veteran cooperator and a long-time friend of Mehta, Mr Satish Marathe wrote “At the Board Meeting of NAFCUB held in Delhi, Sh Jyotindrabhai Mehta was today evening elected President of NAFCUB for the ensuing 3 years. He won the election by a wide margin.

Its a well deserved recognition by the CoOp Banking Sector of years of dedicated services of Sh Jyotindrabhai

After the election, Hon H K Patil, Minister, Govt of Ktaka, Hon Dr Chandrapal Singh, MP, President, NCUI and the outgoing President, Dr Mukund Abhyankar heaped praised and felicitated Sh Jyotindrabhai.”