Buoyed up by the victory in Urban Local Bodies elections in Uttar Pradesh, BJP now aims to capture co-operative bodies, elections for which are due in January next year. A meeting of office bearers of the state unit was called on Sunday to devise strategy for elections of cooperative societies.
The main agenda of the Sunday meeting would be to chalk out strategies for co-operative elections, said State BJP general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak, media reports quote. All the senior leaders will attend the meeting, he added.
Re-echoing BJP’s tone Sahakar Bharati also talks of freeing state co-operatives from the clutches of Samajwadi Party. In Sahakar Bharti’s view, nothing short of a thorough overhaul could bring the cooperative sector back on the rails.
Sahakar Bharati officials also confirmed that it would fight the cooperative bodies’ elections in UP slated for early next year. A source is quoted saying Sahakar Bharti will soon announce their panel of names for the cooperative elections.
Sources say it was at the insistence of Sahakar Bharati that the Yogi govt ordered an inquiry into the recruitment of people for scores of posts over the last years. A formal complaint in this connection was also lodged with the cooperatives’ dept of the state, say Sahakar Bharati sources.
In the latest case, Chukhan Lal Secretary and CEO of Saharanpur District Cooperative Bank and Etawa District
Cooperative Bank Deputy Managing Director Sunil Kumar Pundir have been suspended.
Sahkar Bharti has demanded the establishment of a state cooperative board patterned on the Maharashtra model. They have also demanded the appointment of a full time registrar of cooperative bodies.
There are around 50,000 registered cooperative societies in the state in which leaders of SP control the levers of power. BJP alleges that Shivpal Singh Yadav, then Cooperation Minister not only ensured that SP workers are in control of co-op bodies but also inducted his close family members into top cooperative posts.
Pradeshik Cooperative Federation (PCF)-the apex body of marketing co-operatives in the state is being headed by Shivpal Singh Yadav’s son Aditya Yadav-and Shivpal Singh Yadav’s wife is also heading one of the district cooperative banks in Western UP. Incidentally, Aditya who is also on IFFCO Board got recently elected to the highest global cooperative body-ICA.
