NCUI: Election fever rises; Sahu out, others may follow

The new Governing Council of the apex cooperative body NCUI is certainly going to have a changed complexion with many outgoing members’ fate hanging in the balance. There are many people working hard to capture the top position. But one whose “men” dominate the GC could alone become the president has spiced up the game.

One of the first causalities of the internecine battle is Lakhan Lal Sahu the outgoing member of the Governing Council. Sahu is an unhappy man as his name is nowhere to be found in the list of delegates who filed nominations last week.

A perplexed Sahu, who earlier floated the idea of Bharat Ratna for farmers told Indian Cooperative” I have submitted the petition with the Returning Officer Mr V P Singh and I hope that the anomaly would be removed from the final list of nominations to be put up at the NCUI notice board on the 26^th February.”

But Sahu is not alone. There are many cooperators who are looking askance at their missing names in the list. Some of them are camping at the NCUI headquarters on August Kranti Marg in Delhi.

”They have failed to understand the process by which I was elected at my parent cooperative organization in Chattisgarh,” said Sahu who also happens to be the Chairman of the Chattisgarh State Cooperative Union. ”I have met Mr V P Singh and tried to convince him of the process involved in my election back home.”

Earlier, when Indian Cooperative talked to Mr Singh he said these are names without scrutiny and a final list of valid voters would be put up on the 26^th. ”There are many cooperative bodies that have not paid their dues and I have given them a long rope to clear the same”, he added.

But then one wonders how those who filed nominations including Lakhan Lal Sahu did not figure in the un-scrutinized list. Sahu is keeping his fingers crossed and has decided, to stay put in Delhi.

The heat of the NCUI election is picking up with each passing day and several cooperators including Mudit Verma, Sunil Kumar Singh, Pramod Kumar and others getting ready to take on one another for a berth on the NCUI’s Governing Council, the highest body of the cooperative movement in the country.

Ashok Dabas, another cooperator who like others does not want to miss the bus is also in the race. He has been able to find his name in the published list but whether he would be able to find a berth in the GC is anybody’s guess.

The election is scheduled for 16th March and the list of those who have filed nominations for delegates put up last week, displays about names of about 300 delegates. Both directors and voters would finally come from this very list.