Internal rift surfaces within Maharashtra’s ruling coalition as Shiv Sena leader urges respect for the farmer mandate, criticizing the ordinance to nominate voting directors as Congress leader Satej Patil alleges resort politics.
Internal political friction within Maharashtra’s ruling Mahayuti alliance has broken into the open over the state government’s ongoing effort to influence the board of the Kolhapur District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union, commercially known as Gokul Dairy. As reported by The Indian Express, senior leader Ravindra Dhangekar of the Shiv Sena (led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde) publicly criticized the government’s intervention, demanding that democratic norms be upheld and that the electoral verdict of the cooperative’s milk-producing farmers be respected.
The dispute follows the October board election where the Rajarshi Shahu Shetkari Samvichari Aghadi, led by Congress MLC Satej “Bunty” Patil, defeated the Mahayuti coalition by securing 13 of the 25 seats against the ruling alliance’s 12. Following that loss, the state Cabinet cleared an ordinance amending the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act to appoint five members—four of them co-opted “expert directors” with full voting rights—to large apex cooperatives with turnovers exceeding statutory thresholds. Gokul, with an annual turnover nearing ₹4,000 crore, directly falls under the amendment’s scope.
Dhangekar broke ranks with coalition leadership, describing attempts to alter board control through post-election legislative amendments as fundamentally contrary to democratic cooperative norms:
“There should be no attempt to forcibly capture power at Gokul. No cheating should take place. We should live up to democratic norms,” Dhangekar stated. “Those who have secured a majority should be allowed to claim power. All laws and regulations should be followed. Attempts should not be made to gain backdoor entry… It is wrong to change the law and nominate four directors on Gokul’s board. This kind of cheating is just not done.”
This marks the second public criticism by Dhangekar against the ruling alliance within a month, having previously raised concerns over the BJP’s strategy following an electoral loss in Pune during the Legislative Council polls.
Meanwhile, Satej Patil escalated his accusations against the Mahayuti alliance, alleging that the ruling coalition has engaged in resort politics to maintain leverage ahead of the court-ordered chairman election. Patil claimed that Mahayuti directors and prospective nominees are being sequestered at locations across Goa, Surat, and Udaipur, and pressured to execute affidavits without complete operational visibility.
The confrontation comes as the cooperative prepares for a fresh chairman election meeting ordered by the Bombay High Court’s Kolhapur Circuit Bench for November 10. Under Gokul’s statutory bylaws, an election meeting requires a 14-director quorum. Because Patil’s panel holds 13 seats and the Mahayuti panel holds 12, the 12-member boycott of the initial October 29 meeting left the board one director short, triggering the regulatory dispute and the state’s subsequent nomination move.
From a cooperative governance and agribusiness economics perspective, Dhangekar’s dissent illustrates how dairy cooperative elections in western Maharashtra transcend standard party lines. Gokul Dairy connects over 4.41 lakh smallholder milk producers and processes millions of litres daily. The internal dispute within the Mahayuti demonstrates that using state administrative mechanisms to bypass elected producer majorities risks alienating coalition allies and provoking legal scrutiny over the autonomy of farmer-owned institutions.
Source: The Indian Express
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