TWO WEEKS before the elections for the Surat-Tapi District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Ltd, the Congress-backed Pashu Palak Heet Rakshak Samithi (PPHRS) on Tuesday moved 11 of its candidates to a “safer place” outside Gujarat.
Congress leaders said the move was taken to shield the 11 individuals from “pressure tactics” of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose candidates are contesting under the banner of Sahkar Panel. They alleged that the proposer of a Samithi candidate had been missing since Sunday.
The co-operative is popularly known as Sumul Dairy.
Even as the BJP has already won five seats on the dairy’s board of directors uncontested, the party faces challenges on the remaining 11 poll-bound seats. Also, some of its members, who were denied a mandate earlier, will be fighting for membership with the support of the Congress-backed group.
The elections are scheduled for July 15. For the past ten years, BJP-backed individuals have helmed the dairy.
According to its annual report for 2024-25, the dairy’s total trade turnover for that fiscal was Rs 6,276 crore.
Sumul Dairy, which comprises 1,039 primary milk producer co-operative societies, is run by a board of 19 members, 16 of whom are elected. The other three are ex-officio members from the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, the National Dairy Development Board, and the district registrar’s office.
The milk producer co-operatives, in turn, have 2.50 lakh members, and their presidents vote to elect the board of directors.
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After Monday — the first day of form withdrawal — 40 candidates were left in the fray for the 11 seats, sources in the dairy’s election unit told The Indian Express. An official from the Surat district collector’s office is the election officer.
They added that while the elections were initially due in 2025, after the terms of chairman Mansinh Patel and vice-chairman Rajesh Pathak ended, they could not be held then due to the local body polls and the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision drive. “This led to a delay in the co-operative body elections. So, a custodian was placed in charge,” said Pathak.
At least three PPHRS picks are those who were denied a mandate to contest the polls by the ruling party.
Critical of the BJP for introducing the mandate system in the co-operative body elections, Congress Legislature Party leader Tushar Chaudhary said, “By giving a mandate, directors are bound in advance to work at the behest of the party and are given free rein that leads to corruption. We have come to know that the BJP has won five seats uncontested. Keeping the PPHRS’s interests in mind, we have moved them (the Samithi’s candidates) to a safer place. We will give (the BJP) a tough fight on the remaining 11 seats.”
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Congress’s Surat district president and former MLA Anand Chaudhary claimed, “Ravindra Vasava, who is the proposer of PPHRS candidate from Umarpada Saunji Vasava, has been missing for two days. We tried but could not locate him. This led us to move all our 11 candidates to a safer place outside the state, so that the BJP cannot force them to withdraw their forms.”
The party, however, had not lodged a missing person’s complaint at the time this report was filed.
Rajesh Pathak, who is one of the five ‘uncontested’ winners, said: “We (the BJP) will definitely retain power in Sumul Dairy… There is no issue faced by farmers who supply milk to Sumul. Some of our party members are contesting the election from PPHRS, and we hope that they withdraw their forms before July 4.” Pathak has won from the Mangrol seat.
The BJP workers supported by PPHRS are Naresh Patel (former chairman of Surat district cooperative bank, who is up against BJP’s Raju Ahir for Valod), Vasant Patel (who will contest against ex-MLA Dhansukh Patel to win Olpad) and Jaymin Patel (he will go head-to-head with Jigar Naik for Mahuva).
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The five seats that went uncontested are Choryasi, Mangrol, Kamrej, Palsana, and Bardoli. From Choryasi that has 16 votes, local BJP MLA Sandeep Desai won; outgoing vice chairman Rajesh Pathak won from Mangrol (65 votes), Bharatsinh Solanki from Palsana (10 votes), Balwant Patel from Kamrej (20 votes), and Ajit Patel from Bardoli (56 votes).