Die is cast, it’s a fight between Parthi Bhatol and Vipul Chaudhary in the election of Gujarat Cooperative Marketing Milk Federation (GCMMF), the owner of famous brand Amul.

Till recently Bhatol was being coy and not declaring his name. He was probably waiting for the green light from the High Command. But on Sunday while talking to Indian Cooperative.com he said he is very much in race.

Bhatol would file nomination on 18th August, the day of the GCMMF election. Obeying the court orders the Deputy Commissioner of Anand had announced the election schedule. Vipul Chaudhary would also file nomination on the same day.

Vipul Chaudhary is representing the milk union, Dudhsagar of Mehsana while Bhatol represents Banas dairy.

Though Bhatol was careful enough not to drop any hint, it is obvious that he has had some positive response from Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

But Indian Cooperative has reliably learnt that though Modi favours Bhatol he is yet to signal his choice to the different milk unions
counting sixteen.

Majority of the milk unions, about 12 are controlled by the ruling party while the remaining four are in the Congress fold. Modi, himself caught neck-deep into the preparations for the assembly elections would spell out his choice, according to his close aide, a couple of days only before the election.

The delay is necessitated by the fact that Vipul Cahudhary, the challenger of Bhatol also belongs to the BJP fold. Modi would not like to displease anybody without reasons. He is possibly assessing the loss or the gain of supporting either of the candidates in the larger context of the state election due in November.

But what is clear is that the Congress MLA and Chairman of milk union Amul , Ramsinh Parmar stands no chance.

His effort to upset Bhatol by siding with Vipul Chaudhary is fraught with risks for Vipul as his party would not take kindly to his seeking support from outsiders.

Vipul’s detractors accuse him of not conducting the affairs of Dudhsagar in a fair and progressive manner. His disposition and way of treating people are also not liked by many.

There are many who oppose Bhatol too and cite numerous cases of irregularity at Banas dairy. The current subtle war may get louder as the election day gets closer.

Shankar Chaudhary. He is the man who holds the key to the GCMMF election scheduled for August 18.

The world-famous Amul brand is owned by GCMMF headquartered at Anand in Gujarat.

Shankar Singh is a BJP MLA and the Chairman of Banas District Cooperative Bank. He is said to be very close to Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The fight for the GCMMF Chairmanship is again between the current Chairman Parthi Bhatol and his old-time adversary Vipul Chaudhary.
Indian Cooperative has reliably learnt that Narendra Modi is in favour of the current Chairman Parthi Bhatol. But Modi himself is a beleaguered man in this election year.

Modi’s problem is being compounded by Keshu Bhai Patel who has floated a party of his own and is likely to draw on the BJP following.
Vipul Chaudhary is also from BJP and would pull out all the stops to impress upon the party leadership to nominate him.

Observers say anything can happen in the election year. Modi is not as domineering as he used to be given the compulsions of electoral politics.

Parthi Bhatol’s son Vasant Bhatol is also a BJP MLA having clout with the BJP leadership. Vipil would have to contend with him as well. The choice of candidature remains inconclusive so far.

Shankar Chaudhary, the strong man from Banas is said to favour Bhatol. Chaudhary’s closeness with Narendra Modi is the strongest point in favour of Bhatol.

But Ramsinh Parmar is a factor Bhatol may have to reckon with in his bid to secure nomination for the Chairmanship. Last time Ramsinh Parmar had teamed up with Vipul Chaudhary to upset Bhatol’s applecart. But Chief Minister Narendra Modi acted as a bulwork against the plot.

Cooperative politics in the country as well as in Gujarat is not divided on political party lines. It is a common sight to see BJP man lobbying with Congress to win an election. Being party-neutral also helps the cooperative politics to rise above the narrow considerations.

But with Modi’s own house afire, how far could he be effective in dousing other’s fire remains to be seen.

Election Officer and Deputy Collector of Anand district, N D Mistry finally announced the election of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) on Wednesday. The date of election has been fixed on August 18.

Nominations would be filed on the same day and the voting would begin from 11 am, informed the Collector. The date of election had become a thorny issue which ultimately sought the intervention of Gujarat High Court.

On 20 July High Court ordered the collector to complete the election process within a month. N D Mistry, the returning officer as well as the Deputy Commissioner of Anand which houses the famous brand Amul has announced the date keeping in mind the high court’s deadline.

Delay was being attributed to politicking by the Narendra Modi government which has also to go for election later this year in November.

GCMMF consists of 16 milk unions and there is a clear cut majority of BJP government in it with most of the chairmen belonging to its fold.

But within BJP also there is fierce fight which would only worsen with the announcement of date of election.

The outgoing Chairman Parthi Patel is an old time loyalist of Modi and it was Modi who ensured his smooth sailing in a highly politicized charged atmosphere of GCMMF Board room.

Vipul Chaudhary is another contender and a name to reckon with in BJP’s power of corridor. Then there are some elements of Congress which may try to upset Modi’s card by siding with some disgruntled element of BJP.

Some of the chairmen of milk unions also remain indecisive till end , mostly evaluating their “benefits” from different candidatures.

There is an eerie silence in GCMMF at Anand in Gujarat these days. Elections are round the corner but when- is not known to anyone. And who are in fray is another question haunting the stake holders.

Talking to Indian Cooperative on Monday the outgoing Chairman Parthi Bhatol once again reiterated that he does not know if he is a candidate. Sources confide to Indian Cooperative that he is waiting for “order” of his political bosses.

But Bhatol clarified to Indian Cooperative that what he waits for is the members’ reaction. If they want me to contest I would do so, he said emphatically.

When Indian Cooperative contacted Mr R S Sodhi, the Managing Director of GCMMF to know the date of elections, Mr Sodhi said “no dates have come so far from the office of District Magistrate”.

Readers could recall that court had asked Collector to complete the elections procedure within a month. Board has already completed its tenure in July.

GCMMF, the cooperative federation of 16 milk unions has in its byelaws stipulation of a perpetual board. Explaining this further, Sodhi said that unless the next board meeting takes place, the erstwhile board would continue.

The dairy cooperative giant passes through the motion of a board meeting after every three months. Even the date of holding next board meeting is to be fixed in consultation with the district magistrate.

But Mr Sodhi sounded confident that within a month a new board would be constituted.

Vipul Chaudhary remains a potent challenger, besides Bhatol. But each of the board members of GCMMF has to first get elected from the milk union which he represents. Election of Banas dairy is round the corner.

Bhatol’s victory at Banas would embolden him to contend for the election of Chairmanship of GCMMF. Till then fingers would remain crossed.

GCMMF popularly known as Amul has made a name for itself as a company that sells dairy products. Amul girl has no doubt played an important role in branding its image. But Indian Cooperative has found out another reason behind its great reputation.

The incident is small yet significant. It shows how an organization gets built.

One of the readers based in Delhi wrote in the comment box of one of the stories of Indian Cooperative that the milk being supplied by Amul for the last three days had been stale.

Indian Cooperative forwarded the comment to R S Sodhi , Managing Director of Amul Monday evening. Mr Sodhi wrote back immediately asking for e-mail and other details of the complainant which Indian Cooperative supplied happily.

And then a torrent of communications started from the MD’s desk for the entire day. Next morning the comment-writer Sanjay JIndal ,a resident of Patparganj in Delhi was startled to find a whole team of Amul officials descending on his residence.

Taken aback by the fast-paced development he writes “

With reference to my complaint about Amul milk, I had posted on your portal, I wasn’t expecting any response at all, but I am very happy to inform you that they took notice and made an effort to understand and resolve the issue.

Amul’s representative visited me today and replaced the bad milk. He also assured me that they will also deal with the distributor who had refused to change the delivery and refused to replace the bad milk. But something to follow up if anything happens or not!

I also asked him if the entire customer who got the spoiled milk for few days, would they get the refund and he said yes, that they are going to process refunds thru the dealer network. Again something to watch if Amul would really do anything on this or these is just empty assurances.

Thanks again for your initiative. This gives encouragement to consumers who sometime think that there is no point in complaining because nothing will happen.

Regards
Sanjay Jindal sanjay.jindal@netsutra.com

Sodhi acting with alacrity and dispatch is something that could not only be useful for the cooperatives but also for our corporates. It is because of this kind of attitude that Amul takes on the India Inc and is a jewel of the Cooperative world. Will other MDs take cue from him?

Vadodara District Milk Producers Cooperative Union had recently filed a petition in the Gujarat High Court urging the court to direct the Anand Collector to hold an immediate election for the post of chairman of GCMMF.

The court has asked the Collector to announce the elections and complete the poll process within two weeks.

It is noteworthy that the tenure of the GCMMF chairman had come to an end already in June but the Anand Collector had been delaying the announcement of elections. The delay had caused all manners of speculation fraying nerves in the cooperative circles in Gujarat.

Parthi Bhatol, the current Chairman had a tumultuous tenure. Ram Sinh Parmar joined by Vipul Chaudhary had kept him on tenterhooks for the major part of his tenure. It is only for the last couple of years that he had smooth sailing.

Whether Bhatol would fight or not is not clear as he is keeping his cards close to his chest. He does not want to appear as a greedy cooperator hankering after positions. Especially before the chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Narendra Modi favoured him last time as he was looked upon as a simple man. But things have changed since. His opponents have leveled various acts of omission and commission against him in Banas dairy which has hogged the headlines in local dailies.

Bhatol had contested corruption charges in the pages of Indian Cooperative and had cited the fast growth rate of Banas as proof of his competence. But ghost of Banas dairy is sure to haunt him either in his selection as the future candidate of GCMMF or in the final election if he is chosen as a candidate by the BJP.

Vipul Chaudhary ,Chairman of Dudhsagar is another potent candidate. He also belongs to BJP and has strong lineage.
Which way the party High Command thinks is a matter of speculation for all. The Court’s judgment in this background is sure to lead to intense politicking.

Campaign would pick up momentum once the date of the election is announced. GCMMF has 16 voters, 15 of them belong to the dairy cooperatives and one vote belongs to the Registrar of the Gujarat cooperatives. In the last election there were 13 votes but two more cooperative federations have joined since adding to the votes.

Those contesting the election for the Chairmanship of GCMMF would have to keep an eye on four members as they are treated as floating votes. They could switch sides easily. This includes Manu Patel of Surat Dairy, Jetha Patel of Sabarkatha dairy, Shankar Singh Rana of Gandhi Nagar dairy and Baba Parmar of Surendra Nagar dairy.

The last couple of months have been spectacular for Indian Cooperative. Its readership has doubled in these months. While nearly 10 lakh (one million) people visited the portal in the month of April, the figures for June are a whopping 19.72 lakh.

It means more than 80 thousand people visit the site daily now. Quite a statistic! Even for a general kind of news portal.

What has caused this quantum leap in readership? Our editorial team has been grappling with this question for quite sometime without getting a satisfactory answer.

It is true that Indian Cooperative was launched in a new avatar in the month of April- when the graph of readership picked up. New features such as Cooperative coffee shop- and Cooperative Queries were added. The additional features offered people scope for venting their views.

Cooperative Queries that is being produced with the help of Mr I C Naik, has become popular with more than a dozen queries landing up on our news desk every day. Mr Naik is a retired Chartered Accountant who does it out of sheer resolution to help the cooperative movement.

The special section offered on home page to celebrate the IYC-2012 has also registered a tremendous response. Our stories are being picked up and displayed at News Hub especially created by the International Cooperative Alliance for the occasion. It would not be a surprise if Indian Cooperative turned out to be the biggest contributor to the News Hub.

The portal is aimed at creating a platform for the cooperative sector and reviving the pristine spirit of cooperation that is in a bad way. Reviving this, calls for courage, conviction and of course material support.

We would not like to let go the opportunity to thank our sponsors who take pains to ensure the show called Indian Cooperative goes on. Iffco, Amul, Saraswat Bank and Cosmos Bank figure prominently in this list, more so because they have never been impatient with the editorial freedom of Indian Cooperative even when the issues at stake have closely dealt with them.

Most of all, the success of Indian Cooperative is a tribute to the cooperative movement, the foundation of which could be traced to the growth of human civilization. The International year of cooperatives has indeed been an encouragement to this endeavour.

Adulterated milk has recently been the subject of national conversation. There have been reports of even major milk companies selling adulterated milk on the market. It is against a background of growing public suspicion of adulteration that milk major Amul has decided to have mobile vans for on the spot checks of milk samples.

According to Ramsingh Parmar, Chairman of Amul, which actually is one of the milk unions of GCMMF, this would greatly strengthen adulteration prevention efforts in that investigation would become a lot easier and an effective quick check on adulteration an easy practical option.

Amul has over thousand village cooperative societies under its control that are scattered over various districts of Gujarat. With the help of mobile vans, Amul can easily keep its eye on adulteration.

There are dozens of sources of milk located in faraway districts of the state but the use of mobile checking vans would deter the erring ones among them from indulging in any suspicious activities.

Sources claim the mobile van has the latest technology on it and would come very handy whenever an investigation needs to be conducted. This marks Amul out as a company that cares about its customers, sources add.

The Gujarat state registrar of cooperatives has asked Anand’s Amul Dairy and Valsad’s Vasundhra Dairy to ensure all talukas of the district under their respective jurisdictions get equal representation.

The registrar’s direction has come when both the district unions are gearing up to hold elections for their board of directors.

However, both the unions are not very happy with the registrar’s fiat and have therefore challenged it in the High Court.

It bears mention that the registrar’s order has followed the Gujarat High Court recently ruling that Banas Dairy of North Gujarat give equal representation to all the constituencies of the district.

The unions argue that their bye-laws are different from the bye-laws of the Banas Dairy and therefore they are not supposed to follow suit.

They maintain that as they have only two constituencies -general and individual, there is no scope whatsoever for accepting the idea of a third constituency.

The term of Chairman of GCMMF, a cooperative federation of fifteen dairy cooperatives comes to an end on 25-26th June. R S Sodhi, Managing Director of the famed dairy brand Amul has already written to the collector for starting the process of election.

Parthi Bhatol, the current Chairman had a tumultuous tenure with Ram Sinh Parmar of Congress mounting a continuous pressure on him to quit. The matter had come to a head a couple of years ago when a majority of members of GCMMF Board had gone against Bhatol.

But how he won remains an act of miracle yet. It is said that because of his simplicity Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat backed him and he succeeded in turning the board in his favour. Lots of water has flown through the Ganges meanwhile with his opponents at Banas dairy mounting all kinds of charges against him.

Vipul Chaudhary,the man behind Dudhsagar, was the one who had challenged Bhatol earlier. Since the date of election has not been announced directors of GCCMF are keeping their cards close to their chest.

Vipul Chaudhry is in BJP and could easily get himself catapulted as the candidate for the Chairmanship. Bhatol is non-committal and leaving everything on high command and Ram Sinh Parmar’s political activities on the subject remain unclear so far.

Campaign would pick up momentum once the date of the election is announced. According to unconfirmed sources it could be 17 or 18 July,just before the election of the President of India which is scheduled for 19th July.

GCMMF has 16 voters, 15 of them belong to the dairy cooperatives and one vote belongs to the Registrar of the Gujarat cooperatives. In the last election there were 13 votes but two more cooperative federations have joined since adding to the votes.

Those contesting the election for the Chairmanship of GCMMF would have to keep an eye on four members as they are treated as floating votes. They could switch sides easily. This includes Manu Patel of Surat Dairy,Jetha Patel of Sabarkatha dairy,Shankar Singh Rana of Gandhi Nagar dairy and Baba Parmar of Surendra Nagar dairy.