The D Day is finally here as the cooperative behemoth, IFFCO, which has been bracing for the last four months to conduct fair and peaceful elections, is all set for the voting today.
The sprawling IFFCO headquarters, IFFCO Sadan at Saket in Delhi, has been spruced up for the smooth conduct of the election process.
There are seven Directors who would finally be declared victorious once the voting and counting are done. The results would be out in the second half. About 600 delegates will cast their votes to elect seven BoDs.
“The registration process begins at 8 am on Thursday and the entire process is likely to be wrapped up by 4 pm”, said an election officer in the know of things.
IFFCO has been able to elect 14 Directors uncontested. But there is going to be a keen contest in the remaining seats, which number seven.
Among the outgoing Directors whose fate would be decided today are – Jayeshbhai Radadiya, Sadhana Jadav, Simachal Padhy, Srinivasa Gowda and Amit Singh.
Those who have already elected unopposed are Dileep Sanghani, Balbir Singh, J Ganesan, Mara Ganga Reddy, P P Nagi Reddy, Rajendra Kumar, Sudhansh Pant, Alok Singh, Balmiki Tripathi, Jagdeep Singh Nakai, Umesh Tripathi, Prahlad Singh, Prem Chand Munshi and Vivek Kolhe.
The fights for Gujarat, Karnataka, Women seat, Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh and Odisha-West Bengal are going to be quite intense.
From Gujarat, the other two heavyweights, Gujcomasol Vice-Chairman Bipin Patel and outgoing director Jayeshbhai Radadiya, are in the fray.
In the Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh constituency, the outgoing director and veteran Congress leader Govind Singh’s son, Amit Pratap Singh, is pitted against Gwalior (Gramin) district BJP President Kaushal Sharma.
In the Rajasthan constituency, four candidates including Kripa Ram Chaudhari, Madan Gopal, Om Prakash Mehta, and Ramnivas Garhwal are in the fray.
Outgoing director Simachal Padhy is pitted against Santimoy Dey of West Bengal. From Karnataka K Srinivasa Gowda takes on Annasaheb Jolle.
For the women seat Sadhana Jadhav has to contend with Varsha Kasturkar from Osmanabad, and Saroj Kharra, wife of Rajendra Kharra. There are 50 voters for the women’s seat.
In the constituency, Kerala-Tamil Nadu, three candidates are in the race including K P Baby, S Shakthvel, and Sumesh A.
The IFFCO board consists of 21 directors, out of which eight are to be elected from state cooperative marketing federations, 12 from general seats, and one from a women reserved seat.