For the first time, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat on Friday captured the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union — Amul Dairy — with complete majority, winning 11 out of the 13 seats of the Board of Directors, including one of an individual member, in the elections held on September 10. Four of these seats had been won uncontested by the BJP ahead of the polls.
On Friday, as the counting of the votes to the eight seats of the two blocks as well as one individual seat began, BJP emerged a clear winner in a total of six blocks and one individual seat while Congress retained its seat of Borsad and won Kapadvanj.
The BJP’s win is a milestone that it had been eyeing for several years, especially after the 2022 win in the State Assembly polls with a margin of 156 seats. In February 2023, the BJP had managed to take control of the coveted milk cooperative when four directors of Amul had switched over to the party from the Congress, bringing down the latter’s tally to three.
As against the Congress winning eight out of the 11 seats for which elections were held in 2020 — two seats belonging to Ramsinh Parmar and lifetime member Ranjit Patel had been won uncontested — the BJP managed to wrest control in 11 seats this time. This includes 10 in the blocks and one individual member.
The BJP, which has majority in all 18 milk unions in the state, which are a part of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, had deployed its complete election machinery to ensure the win in Amul – right from election in-charge Ajay Brahmabhatt ensuring that no rebel candidates were fielded after the initial announcement made by Umreth MLA Govind Parmar to micromanagement of the nominations and polls.
“This victory is because the cattle farmers have seen the development works that we have done in the last five years. For the first time in Amul’s history, 11 out of our 13 directors have won. The maximum we ever had was three directors, which was during the last elections.” Brahmabhatt said on Friday, adding that the party rues being unable to clean sweep the polls. “We are upset that we could not win the Borsad and Kapadvanj seats. However, we would work harder to win these blocks,” Brahmabhatt said.
The BJP’s sweep could be seen from the margin of victory attained by its candidates: While four of its candidates from Thasra, Balasinor, Mehmadabad and Virpur blocks won unopposed, other candidates like Rajendrasinh Balwantsinh Parmar from Khambhat bagged 84 votes and won by a margin of 65. In Petlad, Binaben Tejaskumar Patel won by 78 votes out of the 83 polled while in Nadiad, former Amul Chairman Vipulbhai Kantibhai Patel won with a margin of 60 votes out of the 83 votes cast.
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In contrast, the Congress managed to win Borsad and Kapadvanj by 12 and 11 votes respectively, indicating that it was a close fight.
Former MLA and Congress leader Rajendrasinh Parmar, who succeeded in holding on to his bastion from Borsad block, accused the BJP of putting their entire party machinery during the elections and using “underhanded tactics” to defeat him. “The voters of Borsad and Anklav areas have placed their complete trust in me by electing me for the sixth time and making me win. In my 20 years, I have never witnessed such an election. BJP MPs and MLAs have spent a lot of money to defeat me but the work I have done for my six terms for the poor and common voters helped me. They tried to lure voters with money.”
Former BJP MLA from Matar, Kesarisinh Solanki, who contested as an independent candidate with a campaign centred around accusing BJP office bearers of being involved in land-purchase scams and in recruitment of employees, managed to bag only 18 votes, losing to Bhagvatsinh Parmar, who got 53 votes.
Three Congress turncoats, who had joined the BJP soon after the 2022 polls, turning the tables on the Congress in the Amul Dairy — Gautam Chauhan from Mehmadavad, Ghela Mansinh Zala from Kathlal and Kanti Sodha Parmar from Anand blocks – retained their seats. Chauhan was, in fact, elected uncontested ahead of the polls.
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BJP candidate Vijay Patel, who won from the individual member seat, managed to scrape through by a razor-thin margin of just one vote. Out of the seven votes cast, four went to Vijay Patel while rival candidate Ranjit Patel got three votes.
BJP sweeps Panchamrut Dairy uncontested
The BJP has won the election to the board of directors of Panchmahal district’s Panchamrut Dairy uncontested after all contestants, except the BJP-mandated leaders, withdrew their forms on Wednesday (September 10) — the last day of withdrawing nominations for the September 20 polls for 18 seats.
The move means that the Panchamrut Dairy will not see any elections taking place for the 18 seats. Senior party leaders have also confirmed that Jetha Ahir will be eventually elected as the Chairman of the dairy as he has held the post for 16 years since 2009.
As many as 31 candidates had filed their nomination papers and 13 accepted candidates, who were cleared during the scrutiny of the nominations, withdrew on Wednesday.
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The win in Panchamrut dairy comes even as the BJP gets ready to face a rebellion from sitting MLA Arunsinh Rana of Vagra assembly constituency in Bharuch district in the Dudhdhara Dairy Board of Directors elections on September 19 with Rana fielding a panel of about 12 contestants to take on the BJP-mandated leaders.
Rana is taking on BJP-mandated Ghanshyam Patel, who has been at the helm of the Dudhdhara Dairy for 17 years, in close contest. Out of a total of 15 seats, BJP’s Prakash Desai has already won one seat uncontested.
