Baroda Dairy on Monday witnessed high-voltage drama as the scheduled elections for the posts of chairman and vice-chairman of the district milk union got postponed till July 3.
While all board members of the union arrived well before noon for the meeting during which the chairman and vice-chairman were to be elected, the returning officer for the election did not turn up for the meeting till 3pm.
It is the first time that elections for the top posts of a co-operative dairy union have been postponed as a government official did not turn up, inviting flak from board members of the dairy who termed it as “political interference” and “BJP’s attempt to avoid embarrassment”.
Ahead of the meeting, dairy’s former chairman Dinesh Patel alias Dinu Mama was already in a mood to rebel. He had declared that he will go against the mandate issued by BJP state high command. BJP leader Rajesh Pathak had also reached the dairy with the party’s mandate but did not disclose the party’s choice for the two posts.
Baroda Dairy’s former vice-chairman G B Solanki, on the other hand, confirmed that he was going to file his candidature for the post of chairman. “This has never happened in the history of Baroda Dairy,” said Solanki.
Sources said that ahead of the scheduled elections, Dinu Mama and Solanki had earlier conducted a separate meeting with other board members after they were sure of getting the support of 11 out of 13 board members who had assured them support notwithstanding the party’s mandate.
“This is political interference,” said Dinu Mama, adding that while Solanki was going to file candidature for the post of chairman, one from the group of 11 board members would have filed candidature for the post of vice-chairman.
The posts had fallen vacant after Dinu Mama and Solanki had resigned following protests and allegations by a group led by Savli BJP MLA Ketan Inamdar.
In April this year, Satish Patel became chairman and Kripansinh Maharaul, who was with Congress and later joined BJP, was elected vice-chairman.
