The elections of district central cooperative banks of Uttar Pradesh concluded on Friday with the ruling BJP sweeping the polls amidst allegations raised by the leaders of the Samajwadi Party. In the 39 District Central Cooperative Banks that went to polls, co-operators connected to BJP won almost all the posts of Chairman and Vice-Chairman. Of the total of 546 BoDs in the 39 DCCBs, BJP claimed 542 seats, a near wipeout for others and particularly for cooperators connected to the SP.
Co-operators connected with the Samajwadi alleged that due to a hostile atmosphere, most of the Samajwadi Party representatives could not even file their nominations. They quote several instances including the one that took place in Mirzapur, where SP candidates were stopped at the gate when they had gone to file nomination. Angered candidates later protested outside the election venue.
Elated at the unprecedented results, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath congratulated the candidates. He wrote, “Hearty congratulations to all the candidates of Bharatiya Janata Party for the grand victory in the election of Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Uttar Pradesh District Cooperative Bank! Best wishes to all the newly elected Chairman-Deputy Chairman for a bright tenure!”
Union Minister of State for Cooperation BL Verma also took interest in the elections of DCCBs, especially in Badaun District’s Cooperative Bank. Minister Verma’s younger son Harsh Rajput was also elected as one of the directors to the board of the bank.
The minister rushed to greet the newly elected Chairman Jitendra Saxena and Vice-Chairman Rani Singh Pundhir of Badaun DCCB.
Besides, there is a change of the guard at the Meerut DCCB, where BJP candidate Vimal Sharma has been elected unopposed as the Chairman of Meerut District Cooperative Bank, replacing Maninder Pal Singh.
Similarly, BJP leader Ramnath Thakur won the election of Chairman of Muzaffarnagar DCCB, replacing Satyapal Singh. The election of the Chairman of Mathura and Deoria-Kasia DCCB were won by Niranjan Singh Dhangar and Ravinder Pratap respectively.
Virendra Pratap Singh has been elected as the Chairman of the Lucknow District Cooperative Bank. Vikram Singh and Ms. Neha Chaudhary have been elected as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Siddharthnagar District Cooperative Bank respectively.
Krishna Vir Singh and Mohan Lal Saini were elected as the Chairman of Ghaziabad and Rampur District
The other elected Chairman of DCCBs included, Vineet Manar from Lakhimpur-Kheri DCCB, Pardeep Singh Bhati for Agra DCCB, Dinesh Kumar for Bijnor District Cooperative Bank, Yogendra Pratap Singh for Sultanpur DCCB, Narendra Singh Rathore for Mainpuri DCCB.
As soon as the names of candidates were announced, the social media was flooded with congratulatory messages. The followers lost no time in sending their congratulations through the social media platforms. The DCCBs board consists of 14 people’, which includes a Chairman, Vice-Chairman and 12 directors.
It is worth mentioning that there are 50 District Central Cooperative Banks in Uttar Pradesh out of which the elections in a few district cooperative banks including Etawah, Barabanki DCCBs and others election will not be held because they recently went to the polls.
There are more than 10 DCCBs in the state, which have been running in losses for many years. It bears recall that last year in October, RBI renewed the license of 16 district cooperative banks of UP which had been cancelled due to the non-fulfilment of norms set by the apex bank. Now, the election of state level apex bodies like Uttar Pradesh State Cooperative Bank will be held soon.
