Prakash Lonare the Nagpur cooperator who headed national apex fisheries cooperative body Fishcopfed till now is finding it tough to get re-elected in the election scheduled for Friday at the Sarita Vihar headquarters of the co-op body in South Delhi.
Another strongman Shinde is challenging Lonare from the Maharashtra zone. While Lonare’s influence is restricted to Nagpur, Shinde is said to wield considerable clout among fishermen in whole of Maharashtra. He is Mumbai based- hub of fisheries cooperatives.
Lonare is also accused of playing dirty politics by floating two societies from three zones which finally led to rejection of candidacy from Gujarat by the returning officer-a retired Ministry official MS Talwar, informed sources to Indian Cooperative.
In the new Board majority of members are expected to be new faces. There would be elections in three zones-Maharashtra, Manipur and Madhya Pradesh. Both in Madhya Pradesh and Manipur-the two faces in fray are first-timers while in Maharashtra Lonare and Shinde are locked into intense fight.
The outgoing Chairman Lonare has been camping in Delhi for most part of the current week. ”Leave aside the Chairmanship, his election to the board is a fraught with uncertainties”, said a cooperator on the condition of anonymity.
Though Fishcopfed represents millions of fishermen it does not elect Board members from the primary societies-an anomaly MD B K Mishra vows to rectify through change in bye-laws with the help of newly elected General Assembly.
There are 31 voters drawn from about 91 fisheries cooperative societies spread in six zones – north, south, west, east, north east and central.
Mishra said all preparations have been done to make the election process as transparent and fair as possible. “CCTV and video-recording have been arranged; police has been informed”, Mishra added.
“This is for the first time that instead of District Federations, State Federations are participating in the election”, MD underlined. The filling of nomination papers by candidates contesting the election will take place on 7th Jan at 2:00 P.M. The Final list of candidates after withdrawals will be announced on the same day at 5:00 P.M.