The wait is over. The final list of candidates after withdrawal for the election of apex body-NCUI, made public Saturday evening, has left just two seats for which voting would take place on Monday. The biggest surprise was the last-minute withdrawal of nomination by Nafcub President Jyotindrabhai Mehta.
Now, the election would be for two seats—one being State Cooperative Unions (Maharashtra-Goa) and another being the constituency comprising labour cooperative federations and others. The Kushalkar team is confident of victory in the lone state co-op unions contest, which practically leaves just one seat, where a fierce fight is on the cards.
The unexpected surprise of the day was the last-minute decision of Jyotindra Mehta. When it was going to be almost 5 pm, Mehta sent the message of his withdrawal. An alert Returning Officer took Mehta on video-conference to confirm the news. Satish Marathe, another senior Sahakar Bharati leader also gave in writing the same.
Mehta bowed out of race, underlining the fact that consensus is more important than a berth in GC. “We need to give a message to the world about the robustness of the Indian cooperative movement”, Mehta added.
It bears recall that in Multi State Cooperatives constituency three were three candidates including Jyotindrabhai Mehta, Pramod Kumar Singh and S R Satishchandra. But due to the last-minute withdrawal by both Mehta and Satishchandra, Pramod Singh, who looked very harassed on Saturday, stands elected unopposed.
Ashok Dabas and V V P Nair are the two rivals now who have locked horns. There are 14 eligible voters from this constituency. Saturday witnessed intense behind-the-scenes negotiations by the NCUI’s top leaders to find a consensus on this seat so that a loud and clear message of “co-operative by consensus” could go across but they failed.
Despite pressure from various quarters, Bijender Singh, Nafed Chairman did not back out from supporting the candidature of VPP Nair, said sources. There were friendly nudges from many coupled with not so friendly ministerial pressures but Singh did not budge from his stand, sources quote.
Several co-operators referred to an audio-tape in this context, recorded by VPP Nair in which Dabas is heard saying not very charitable words for Bijender and this seemed to have hurt him. Earlier, Bijender Singh had agreed to Dabas’s candidature but the tape, cleverly used by Nair spoiled the game for Dabas, sources add.
Earlier, Vishal Singh had withdrawn paving way for Swarna Kamal Saha of the West Bengal State Co-op Union. The directors already elected unopposed include, G H Amin, K N Krishnan Nair, Swarna Kamal Saha, S N Sharma, Pradeep Kumar, V P Singh, Bijendra Singh, Dr Chandra Pal Singh, Dileep Sanghani, Mangal Jit Rai, K Sivadasan Nair, H K Patil, Dr Sunil Kumar Singh, Mudit Verma and Pramod Kumar Singh.
Besides, two seats from the State Cooperative Unions constituency have gone vacant. One seat from Himachal-Jammu State Cooperative Constituency, where nomination papers of both the candidates were found to be invalid. And other from North Eastern States Co-op Union Constituency, where Manipur High Court has stayed the order for announcement of result after the Chairman of Manipur State Cooperative Union has challenged her Vice-President Jeena Postsangbam’s delegation to NCUI.
The list of final candidates after withdrawal can be seen by clicking the link given below.
