IFFCO: Balvir elected Vice-Chairman; Old & Young join chorus

In a rare show of solidarity, Balvir Singh, IFFCO Director from Uttar Pradesh was unanimously elected Vice-Chairman of IFFCO by the Board Friday noon. After the scrutiny, Returning Officer Sanjay Jha announced “I hereby declare Balvir Singh elected Vice Chairman of IFFCO unopposed.”.

Displaying support of the entire board, two sets of nominations were filed by Balvir Singh. While in the first set senior-most Directors Prahalad Singh & Mangi Lal Danga proposed and seconded his candidature, in the second set, young Directors Ovr Ramachandran and Sadhna Jadav did the same. It was to stress that both young and old
supported him, quipped a Board member.

IFFCO’s Board room on the fourth floor in the IFFCO Sadan witnessed queuing of people to greet Balvir Singh, as soon as the RO declared him an unopposed winner. Chairman Dileep Sanghani and MD Dr. U S Awasthi called Singh to their side of the table and posed for photographs after greeting him. And soon there was an unending stream of people to greet him.

Balvir Singh represents IFFCO from Adarsh Krishi Vipran Sahakari Samiti Ltd. He is an advocate by profession and nominated director on the board of the National Cooperative Housing Federation.

Singh was ex-Convener BJP (Cooperative Cell) UP and was on the board of Shahjahanpur District Cooperative Bank. Balvir Singh was elected as a director of PCF in 1990. Singh is one of the few leaders who have been holding various positions in primary cooperative societies, district cooperative banks, top cooperative institutions of the state and national cooperative institutions since 1977.

Born in 1950 in the Zamindar family of Jewan Kothi of Shahjahanpur, Balvir Singh completed his graduation and law studies from Lucknow University. Credited with strengthening ABVP in Lucknow University, Balvir’s father Late Kunwar Rameshwar Singh was a founder member of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh.

Nobody can say if it was a coincidence or a planned move but the fact remains that with Balvir’s ascendance to Vice-Chairmanship and with Dileep Sanghani already being the President, the dominance of BJP at IFFCO is unmistakable.

Earlier, as reported in these columns the five casual vacancies were fulfilled by a single nomination for each seat. The winners were declared elected and certificates were given to them by the Returning Officer in the IFFCO Auditorium on the ground floor. All the Board members including IFFCO Chairman and Managing Director were present on the occasion.

Those elected unopposed included: From Constituency No.1 which comprises Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir only one nomination was filed by IFFCO’s former Chairman BS Nakai’s son Jagdeep Singh Nakai (Ex-MLA). Whereas from the Constituency No. XI, only one candidate i.e. IFFCO’s former Director Pramod Kumar Singh’s nephew Manvendra Singh filed his papers.

From constituency XIV, three candidates filed papers including RAJFED, Administrator, Dinesh Kumar Singh (IAS), UCF Director Umesh Tripathi, and Madhya Pradesh Marketing Cooperative Federation, MD, Parikipandla Narahari (IAS).

Speaking on the occasion of the declaration of Directors’ results, Chairman Dileep Sanghani urged the new Directors to understand the ethos of IFFCO, which is completely dedicated to serving farmers. You have got a chance to serve the country through IFFCO and you must avail the same, said Sanghani.