The bravado of Ashok Dabas lies in tatters as on Tuesday he rushed to withdraw his petition challenging the reorganization of constituencies of NCUI, for which he fought so heroically in the beginning. Interestingly, the verdict by the Sole Arbitrator was to be announced today on June 5.
With this the uncertainty about the NCUI elections has also got cleared and a road map of the same is in the offing.
The verdict may not be announced now, unless the NCUI insists on the same. The judgement may also be announced digitally, given the scare created by Covid 19, sources said.
Dabas could not offer any convincing argument behind this withdrawal when Indian Cooperative asked him for the same. “It is my considered opinion”, he kept on harping without saying much except that he has done so for the sake of the cooperative movement of the country.
Dabas had used the same argument of salvaging the cooperative movement at the time of filing the petition and now he says the same thing while withdrawing the petition. “His each act is made only to strengthen the co-op movement”, quipped a co-operator jokingly.
Indian Cooperative has learnt that at 12.30 noon today on Friday, a Zoom meeting will take place in which Dabas and the NCUI representatives would participate to work out the final modalities.
Sources say the ministry brought pressure to bear on Dabas to quit the fight, though Dabas himself never admitted the same. Indian Cooperative sources also hint at some truce between NCUI and the Ministry on the issue.
The contour of arrangement is however not clear. One theory says that NCUI current leadership has agreed to the idea of having a candidate as President of NCUI as dictated by the Ministry and hence this withdrawal. Chandra Pal is anyway not contesting, sources pointed out.
Earlier, Dabas had alleged that NCUI clubbed some constituencies and the changes are sure to weaken the representation of weaker sections’ cooperatives in the apex co-op body of Indian Cooperative Movement.
They have also alleged that a few of the leaders of NCUI decide constituencies in a manner which would ensure their own entry at the apex body without caring for the overall growth of the co-op movement which NCUI spearheads in the country.