NCP’s Rajesh Patil secures Gokul Dairy chairperson post; setback for Congress

Rajesh Patil of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was on Tuesday elected the chairperson of the Kolhapur District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union, better known as Gokul Dairy. Mr. Patil bagged 16 votes — 12 of the Mahayuti panel and four of the State government-nominated directors. He defeated Shashikant Patil Chuyekar, the candidate fielded by Congress MLC Satej Patil-led panel, by three votes.

Power-sharing terms

Mahayuti sources told The Hindu that an “understanding” had been reached among the four Mahayuti constituents — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), NCP, Shiv Sena and Jan Surajya Party — that the five-year tenure of the chairperson will be divided equally among them. “Each will get a 1.25-year term,” said a Minister.

The result came as a setback to the Congress MLC a day after the Bombay High Court refused to intervene in the election process on his plea.

A panel backed by Mr. Satej had defeated the Mahayuti combine in the elections to the Gokul Dairy board on October 18, winning 13 of the 25 seats against the ruling alliance’s 12. Mr. Satej moved the court against a recently promulgated ordinance giving the State government the power to appoint five directors to its board, four of them with voting rights, and fundamentally altering the balance of power in the cooperative.

Soon after the result, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut hit out at Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah for “stabbing Kolhapur in the back”.

Mr. Fadnavis accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of turning the elections to the Gokul Dairy board into a political issue and asserted his faith in institutions and the rule of the Constitution.

“I support the Gokul Dairy institution and the rule of law. I do not support any individual. This was a local issue that was made political by the Opposition leader. Even a gram panchayat has 6,000 voters. Gokul has 5,000 voters. And yet Rahul Gandhi talked about it,” the CM told reporters at an informal interaction. He added, “We had earlier tried to find an amicable solution and appealed to Satej Patil and [State Minister and Mahayuti leader] Hasan Mushrif to come to a consensus. We would not have sent the nominated directors had they agreed.”

Mr. Rajesh appealed to everyone to leave aside differences and to work together. Mr. Chuyekar said they had won “democratically” but the Mahayuti candidate had won due to “autocracy”. “We trust the judiciary. We are fighting the battle in the court, and we know we will get justice there,” he said.