Jethabhai Bharwad, who is the Deputy Speaker of the Gujarat Assembly has been elected Chairman of the titan agri cooperative NAFED in the elections, held on Wednesday in the first half. He is also Chairman of Panchmahal Dairy and Chairman of the PDC Bank.
Karnataka Cooperator Siddappa Hotti and Punjab Markfed’s Tarlok Singh become two Vice-Chairmen of Nafed.
Jethabhai, for whom Dileep Sanghani vacated his seat, was elected unopposed at the board meeting of newly elected Directors of agri cooperative. The election or rather the consensus was achieved at NCUI headquarters in Delhi.
Insiders had pointed out that if a high profile leader like him is coming on the board of Nafed, it is certainly not for the routine job. “He heralds a new era”, said a cooperator from Gujarat.
No doubt, Jethabhai elevation underlines a massive shift of power in the NAFED. Bijender Singh has been at the helm of NAFED for quite a while, and due to his outspokenness, he is not liked by many. Indian Cooperative has gathered that the top leadership of BJP were averse to Singh and wanted him to quit the top job.
The fact that the top leadership of BJP took extraordinary interest in the affairs of NAFED elections underlines the fact that it was not a matter of this candidate or that. The question was of controlling the biggest agri cooperative in the country, insiders point out.
BJP has worked hard to achieve a majority in the newly elected board. On Tuesday, it secured six seats and earlier it had got some of its men elected as Directors unopposed. Jethabhai and Mohanbhai Kundariya are among them. Besides, there were four officers and the Govt Nominee on its side.
It bears recalling that the NAFED board consists of 21 directors, out of which 15 candidates were elected unopposed. Winners include the outgoing Chairman Bijender Singh, Dr. Chandrapal Singh Yadav, Mohan Kundariya, NCCF Chairman Vishal Singh, and Ashok Thakur (Government Nominee).
Other winners include Sekhar Geddam from AP State Co-op Mktg Fed, Deepak Soni from Chhattisgarh Fed, Jethabhai Bharwad from Gujarat Fed, J. Ganesan from Haryana Fed, Guranatha Reddy from Karnataka Fed, Alok Kumar Singh from MP Fed, Tarlok Singh from Punjab Fed, Sudhansh Pant from Rajasthan Fed, Mara Ganga Reddy from Telangana Fed, and Rakesh Gupta from UP Co-op Fed.
The meeting of the newly elected Board of Directors of NAFED began at 10:00 am on 22nd May 2024.