The dispute follows the October board election for the Kolhapur District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union (Gokul Dairy), where Patil’s Rajarshi Shahu Shetkari Samvichari Aghadi secured 13 of the 25 elected seats, defeating the Mahayuti alliance, which won 12. However, the subsequent election to choose the union’s chairperson stalled on October 29 when all 12 Mahayuti directors abstained, leaving the meeting one director short of the mandatory 14-member quorum. The state cabinet subsequently promulgated an ordinance to appoint five directors—granting voting powers to four of them—a move Patil labels a “backdoor entry.”

Patil addressed Fadnavis’s weekend defense, in which the Chief Minister argued that the nominations were necessary to prevent consecutive quorum failures that would trigger an automatic takeover by the District Deputy Registrar (DDR):

• Manufactured Quorum Crisis: Patil stated that the quorum deficit was entirely engineered by the Mahayuti coalition’s coordinated boycott. “If the Chief Minister is genuinely concerned about avoiding administrative paralysis and ensuring a smooth election, he should simply direct his 12 directors to attend the meeting called on November 10,” Patil argued, emphasizing that full attendance creates a 25-director house where quorum is indisputable.