The election of RGB members of IFFCO has kept the eyes of lakhs of co-operators spread across the country, glued to the emerging results for the past few months. Like every election, this one also is throwing results, unbelievable at times.
Though most of the outgoing Directors of the IFFCO board, who also have to first win the RGB membership, have been re-elected, there are a few for whom the results have not been favourable. There are at least two of them– Ovr Chandran from Tamil Nadu and MangiLal Danga from Rajasthan.
Prominent cooperators including outgoing Chairman Dileepbhai Sanghani and outgoing Vice Chairman, Balvir Singh, Balmiki Tripathi, Simachal Padhy, Biscomaun Chairman Sunil Kumar Singh, Nafscob Chairman K Ravinder Rao, Shivpal Yadav’s son Aditya Yadav, Manvendra Singh, Jagdeep Nakai, Umesh Tripathi, Prem Chand Munshi, and others were also elected as RGB members of IFFCO.
But the most noteworthy development has been the rise of women participation in IFFCO affairs as it is being reported that 59 women have been elected as RGB members of IFFCO. In the previous election held in April 2019, 46 women were elected, but this time there is an increase of 13 women.
There are representations from the north east also as five women cooperators have been elected. However, the majority of women are from Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
The process of electing RGB members has been going on for the past month, and the societies with share values ranging from more than Rs 10 lakh to between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 10 lakh have already completed their elections. The election for the 5 percent reservation for women cooperators in the RGB has also taken place.
It is gathered that due to a change of guard in Tamil Nadu, the state government had appointed administrators in many primary level cooperative societies. IFFCO board member OVR Chandran’s society based in Coimbatore also saw a new administrator, dashing all hopes for OVR whose phenomenal rise in last elections not only grabbed media headlines but also reiterated the fairness of IFFCO elections.
Additionally, the two-term IFFCO director Mangi Lal Danga faced defeat this time and could not become an IFFCO RGB member. Reacting to this, Danga said, “The election in our constituency was always held unopposed, and only this time was voting held. I got five votes out of 18.”
In the two upper categories, more than 700 members have been elected so far. Now, the election for societies with share values of less than Rs 1 lakh is scheduled for March 12, 2024. About 120 members would come from these constituencies.
The process, which began with the launch of a new election portal by IFFCO MD Dr. U S Awasthi, will conclude in the first week of May with the constitution of the new board.
(With inputs from Rohit Gupta)