Gujarat: Congress-BJP 'coalition' wins Amul dairy polls

In what seems to be an unusual development, a BJP-Congress 'coalition' has won in the elections in the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union, widely known as Amul dairy. In the poll result announced on Monday, the panel supported by BJP leader Ramsinh Parmar and backed by Rajendrasinh Parmar, a Congress MLA, won the majority seats.

Ramsinh Parmar, chairman of the union, had switched over to BJP from Congress in 2017 during the closely contested Rajya Sabha polls, in which senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel narrowly won. Parmar lost in the Assembly polls held a few months later in the same year. Rajendrasinh, a Congress MLA from Borsad, is the vice-chairman of the union. According to sources, nine out of 11 candidates, backed by these two leaders, won the polls.

Although state Congress was quick to announce that the result was a "victory of Congress", the vice-chairman and party MLA Rajendrasinh Parmar told DH, "It is true that nine candidates supported by me and the chairman (Ramsinh) won the majority but the result is beyond party politics. We came together to fight for the betterment of the federation and milk producers." However, when asked that the party celebrated the win, he added, "I won't say that party politics is responsible for the result but it is also true that most of the leaders belong to Congress' ideology."

Meanwhile, Ramsinh Parmar told DH that "I am still with the BJP but there is no party politics in the dairy. Chunav me Amul samarthak panel jiti hai (In the election Amul-supported panel has won). No one should raise questions about it."

The dairy board consists of 13 elected members out of which 12 represents as many blocks that fall in dairy milk shed areas in the districts such as Anand, Kheda and Mahisagar, all in central Gujarat. In the election, Ramsinh Parmar, who represents Thasra block, was elected uncontested. Another member Ranjit Patel, representing lifetime membership was elected unopposed.

In some of the significant contests, Congress MLA from Anand Kanti Sodha Parmar defeated BJP MLA from Umreth Govind Parmar at Anand block while at Matar block, BJP MLA Kesarisinh Solanki was defeated by a new face Sanjay Patel. Incidentally, Patel was defeated by Solanki in the assembly elections.

Of the 18 dairy cooperative unions in the state which are under the umbrella of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), only Amul dairy is under Congress control.

Meanwhile, BJP over the years has been able to control the rest of the unions. Ramsinh Parmar was the chairman of GCMMF, that sells Amul milk and other dairy products, till July 2020 and had to make way for Shamalbhai Patel as its new chairman with the support of BJP.