A high-level meeting presided over by two top Ministers and attended by the who’s who of cooperative leadership took place last week in Delhi to work out a smooth transition of power after the NCUI upcoming elections.
The two top Ministers were Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Union State Minister Parshottam Rupala. The co-operators attending the meeting included NCUI’s outgoing President Dr Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, IFFCO’s Vice Chairman Dileep Singh Sanghani, Sahakar Bharati’s Satish Marathe and National General Secretary Uday Vasudeo Joshi.
The meeting took place in the backdrop of NCUI going to the polls later this month. As Chandra Pal cannot seek re-election, a new President is to be elected. The BJP Ministers want somebody from their ideology to take over and they sought everybody’s cooperation for the same, informed sources on condition of anonymity.
Indian Cooperative has gathered that the Ministers insisted on the name of Dileepbhai Sanghani as the next President of NCUI, to which everyone participating in the meeting agreed without any hesitation.
In fact, independent sources told this correspondent that the duo of Chandra Pal and Bijender—the two strong men of NCUI politics also want Sanghani as the next President. Though a BJP man, Sanghani is credited with rising above the party lines when it comes to the affairs of cooperatives, they felt.
Interestingly, Sanghani enjoys unheard of support as each side- BJP and non-BJP– claims him to be “their” candidate. Indian Cooperative has also learnt that being an old-time associate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the PM also wishes to have Sanghani as the next President of NCUI. Modi has reportedly asked Union Minister Tomar to ensure Sanghani’s victory.
While the first agenda of the high-level meeting was the unanimous election of Dileepbhai Sanghani as the next President of apex co-op body, the second agenda was the smooth election of candidates for many other seats where a contest looks inevitable.
The ministers asked the leaders present on the occasion to resolve it by sitting together. The four leaders- Chandra Pal, Sanghani, Marathe and Joshi are going to meet again on 18th of this month- a day after the nomination for the GC members begins, confirmed our sources.
There are several seats on which the two sides differ on the choice of candidates. The 18th meeting is aimed at resolving these complicated seats with the Big brothers (Tomar and Rupala) watching the same from the side-lines, the source said chucklingly.
Indian Cooperative will publish a story shortly on the seats where stalemate has occurred and voting looks inevitable. For NCUI elections, stay glued to these columns.