The ultimate dream of the Mehta-Patil Panel to choose a NAFCUB Board without going in for voting, was dashed on the last day of the withdrawal of nominations by two individuals- Subhash Mohite and Varsha Mali.
However, a majority of leaders were happy as 12 candidates were declared elected unopposed, following the advice of top leaders who huddled together all day in a room on Thursday- negotiating with prospective candidates to withdraw from the race for the sake of sending an unambiguous message to the country that the urban co-op banking fraternity stands united like a rock.
There were 11 candidates from the constituency of the state urban co-op banks federations who had filed nominations. The intense counselling by the duo of H K Patil and Jyotindra Mehta led to consensus and finally two candidates withdrew from the race, paving the way for the emergence of 9 unanimous choices.
They are Jyotindra Mehta, HK Patil, Ajay Bramhecha, Mudit Verma, Adv K Jayavarma, Vemireddy Narasimha Reddy, OP Sharma, Laxmi Das and Rambabu Shandilya.
Again, in the case of credit co-ops, two candidates were declared elected unopposed. They are Sahakar Bharati National General Secretary Uday Joshi and Khodiyar Cooperative Credit Society Chairman Kantibhai Patel. Six candidates had filed nominations but Chhaya Saini, Krishnachandra Basak, Pravesh Gupta and N S Jayakumar withdrew their names.
In the women’s constituency, the winner is Alka Srivastava. Outgoing President Jyotindra Mehta was full of praise for Mrs Mallamma Yalawar, President, Chaitanya Mahila Sahakari Bank for withdrawing her nomination papers and making way for the unanimous election of Alka Srivastava.
The main voting is now confined to urban co-op bank constituency where there are seven seats and nine contestants. Only two candidates including Subhash Mohite and Varsha Mali are fighting the election independently, the remaining candidates are being backed by outgoing President Jyotindra Mehta and H K Patil.
Meanwhile, one of the cooperators associated with the cooperative banking sector said, it will not be easy for Mohite and Mali to win the election because from urban cooperative bank constituency, there are 318 votes spread across Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat. “In these states, Ajay Bramechah, Jyotindra Mehta and H K Patil have a strong hold and we see no chance for the two dissenters”, he added.
Talking to the Indian Cooperative, Cooperators said “Contrary to initial indications on the day of final list of nominations that the NAFCUB elections could be fiercely contested, the picture after the deadline of withdrawals is an affirmation of the complete control of the HK Patil-Jyotindra Mehta team.
“Twelve out of nineteen seats for which the elections are being held are elected unopposed. There are nine candidates in the fray for the seven seats of banks’ constituency. It was generally felt that the two extra candidates who apparently do not stand a chance of being insistent on contesting are only making all the voters of the banks’ constituency come from different parts of the country to come and vote”, they said.
“All in all, NAFCUB as a Federation comes out to be a cohesive unit and augurs well for the future of the sector where exciting things like operationalization of its umbrella organization, formation of new urban cooperative banks etc. are on cards”, they underlined.
Whatever be the case, the fact remains that the unambiguous message of UCBs’ unity has failed to materialize due to the prospect of voting on the one hand and on the other leading to avoidable election expenses.
(With input from Rohit Gupta)
