Jyotindra Mehta, the formidable cooperator from Gujarat has been nominated as the government representative on the new board of National Cooperative Union of India. “It is official the ministry letter has come to NCUI”, said Mr Mehta to Indian Cooperative.
Mehta is an old hand and is said to be close to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Readers would recall a story carried in these columns that the PM has his saving accounts in the Rajkot Sahkari Bank of which Mehta is the Chairman.
Primarily active in urban cooperative bank movement, Jyotindra Mehta is the Chief of Gujarat Chapter of NAFCUB. He also holds a prominent position in the Sahakar Bharati, the cooperative arm of Rashtriya Swansewak Sangh(RSS).
Mehta has emerged a winner amidst intense campaigning and back-room manipulations being witnessed in NCUI election this time. There is a last minute efforts by the BJP to make a dent in the stronghold of old guards.
Mehta denies this and says that “Its not BJP as a political party but as a group of like-minded people we would certainly like to support the desirable cooperators.” On a question if the delegates of the states where BJP is in power are being influenced , Mehta denied of having any such knowledge.
Indian Cooperative has reliably learnt that people close to the present regime at the Centre are meeting today in Delhi in order to work out a strategy by which they could shake the existing power-centre in the apex cooperative body.
But to which extent they would succeed is anybody’s guess. Majority of delegates owe allegiance to the old guards and this last minute bid may not fructify, says some privy to the developing cooperative politics. The role of GH Amin assumes significance as he is said to belong to both the camps, a senior cooperator said on condition of anonymity.
