Uttar Pradesh: Shiv Pal era ends at PCF; Aditya to lose IFFCO Board seat

The era of the Samajwadi Party at the Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Federation (PCF) looks close to its end, as the majority of seats have already been grabbed by the co-operators owing allegiance to the BJP.

The elections of the board of PCF are going on and the voting is scheduled for 13^th June. But indications are, there would be not voting as for 14 seats 11 candidates have filed their nomination without a rival on Monday, the last day of nomination.

The three seats are reserved and no nomination has been filed on them. This has led to rumour that there is some internal arrangement between BJP and Shiv Pal Yadav. Yadav will fill up these seats with his family members including wife Sarla Yadav, says a source.

Aditya Yadav did not file his nomination. It bears recalling that for many years, PCF has been headed by Aditya Yadav who is the son of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) chief Shivpal Singh Yadav. The junior Yadav is also on the board of IFFCO and the International Cooperative Alliance.

But, now he has to leave the board of IFFCO also. The new PCF Chairman is likely to grab the berth on the IFFCO board in his place. It bears recall that the term of the PCF board ended in December 2021, but while hearing Aditya’s petition, the High Court HAD issued an order to keep him as the chairman tilL the election of the PCF.

Confirming this, talking to Indian Cooperative Aditya Yadav said, “It’s true that I will no longer be on the board of IFFCO. This time I have not contested the election of PCF because according to rule, I can’t seek the third term as the Chairman of PCF”.

But Aditya’s claim at ICA remains unaffected as he has filed nomination from IFFCO’s subsidiary– Indian Farm Forestry Development Cooperative Limited (IFFDC), India. This is being cited as a smart move since the fact that he cannot contest for a third time at PCF, was well-known.

Coming to the current scene, the elections of Chairman and Vice-Chairman will be held on 14th June. Several veteran cooperators including IFFCO Sahakarita Bandhu Award winner Bharat Tripathy, IFFCO Vice-Chairman Balvir Singh, and others were spotted supporting the BJP candidates.

It is being reported that Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Minister JPS Rathore is taking a keen interest in the elections of PCF. Some days back BJP State President Swatantra Dev Singh and Rathore made a strategy for getting their party workers elected.

The PCF board consists of 14 directors which include the candidates from General Category, Women, SC/ST, and OBC. There are 11 constituencies including Ayodhya, Agra, Kanpur, Jhansi, Meerut, Prayagraj, etc.

The names of elected directors along with their constituencies have been given below:

Agra and Aligarh Mandal– Anurag Pandey

Gorakhpur, Basti, and Azamgarh Mandal– Sahakar Bharati UP Chapter former Chairman Ramashankar Jaiswal and Balmiki Tripathi

Jhansi and Chitrakoot Mandal– Purushottam Pandey

Prayagraj Mandal– Amarnath Yadav

Bareli Mandal– Rakesh Gupta

Moradabad Mandal– Ramesh Ramahutt

Meerut and Saharanpur Mandal– Kunwar Pal

Lucknow Mandal– Vishram Singh Rathore and Ram Bhadur Singh

Kanpur Mandal– Anand Kishore Diwedi

No nomination has been filed from the women’s reserved constituency (Ayodhya and Devipatan Mandal and Varanasi and Mirzapur Mandal).

PCF was established on 11th June 1943. It was aimed at serving the masses in general and the farmers in particular through procurement of their agricultural produce and its marketing.