IFFCO launches massive election process to elect new Board by May

IFFCO, the numero uno in its category in the world, has launched a massive election process to elect a new board for itself. The process which was started by the launching of a new election portal by the MD Dr U S Awasthi and his team last week, will end finally in the May first week with the constitution of the new board.

IFFCO comprises more than 36000 co-op societies and electing RGB members, which make the General Body, would be the first stage of the process. Given the size and spread of the IFFCO, this process will take more than two months.

The details about the elections were provided by Legal and HR Director Mr R P Singh when Co-op Relation officer Santosh Shukla spurned repeated calls from the Indian Cooperative. Singh informed that Madhavi has been made the Chief Election Officer for conducting the RGB elections.

Following the instruction of the Election Authority, IFFCO has already got the Returning Officer appointed, who is the District Magistrate of South East Delhi, said Singh. He also said that as of now nobody can say how many of the outgoing Board members would be re-elected. “That would be clear only in April when one is able to know how many of them have been elected as RGB members”, he added.

Singh also explained the new system launched in this election, “nobody needs to come to Delhi to get a form or file nomination. Each society has a membership number and a phone number and when he writes them in the portal, an OTP comes. Once he enters the OTP he can download form or file nomination”, explained Singh underlining the simplicity of the process.

Insiders say that it is great help for member societies which are spread in far flung areas. IFFCO has presence in almost all the states and UTs and they are saved from coming to Delhi due to this election portal.

Singh informed that IFFCO would be electing close to 1000 RGB members. 800 would come from societies which have share values of more than Rs 10 lakhs and 200 from societies with share values of less than Rs 10 lakh.

Roughly, from every 200 societies, one constituency is created and if the number in a certain area is bigger, the extra number of societies are clubbed with adjoining areas. In no case more than 200 societies are allowed to elect an RGB member, said Singh, asking this correspondent to talk to Mrs Madhavi for more detail.

Interestingly, IFFCO ensures at least one RGB member from each state while capping the maximum number at 25 from any one state. Singh informed that IFFCO will elect at least 50 women RGB members, following the new MSCS Act.

Luckily, there are more than 200 co-ops which have either only women members or are controlled by a women majority. In the last election also, IFFCO had elected several women as RGB members. Sadhana Jadhav had finally emerged as the winner.

Launching the election portal, which is one of its own kind aimed at ensuring total transparency in the process, MD tweeted “Today, I Launched the election portal for 15th RGB elections of IFFCO. Members can login and get election related information. http://RGB2024.iffco.coop. Members can also connect by an email at elections2024@iffco.in. The call centre number is +91 9773897067. At IFFCO, we believe that technology can bring more transparency”, he said.