At the center of the governance crisis is an alleged ₹1,000-crore financial scam that has sparked outrage among cooperative members and regional smallholders. Congress leadership has fiercely questioned how individuals under an active state investigation under Section 86 of the Gujarat Co-operative Societies Act were permitted to clear regulatory hurdles to contest the board seats. Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee General Secretary Darshan Nayak, who also serves as a member of the Sanghiyer Milk Producers Cooperative Society, explicitly charged that a formal investigation report compiled by the Navsari district Registrar has been deliberately withheld by the government to shield the accused politicians.

The opposition contends that election officials failed to execute proper legal scrutiny, approving candidacy files without verifying essential investigative findings or supporting evidentiary documents. According to party briefs, several prominent BJP-backed figures who served on the Sumul administrative board during the period of the alleged financial misconduct have been granted fresh tickets to run. The list of contested candidates includes influential local leaders Raju Pathak, Reshabhai Chaudhary, Balwant Mora (Patel), Bharatsinh Solanki, and Ajit Patel, triggering deep resentment among local cattle farmers who depend heavily on the union’s daily operational stability.

Adding to the electoral friction, Congress has openly raised alarms over the suspicious resolution of five out of the sixteen available board seats, which were won entirely unopposed by BJP-backed figures. The opposition party alleges that the uncontested victories were artificially engineered through systemic political pressure, manipulation, or direct coercion to force alternative candidates into withdrawing their nominations. This lack of an open, competitive democratic process has led to widespread claims from opposition groups that the entire cooperative election framework has been compromised.