Maharashtra clears move to appoint directors in big cooperatives, Opposition cries foul over Gokul

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government on Wednesday approved a proposal that would empower it to appoint five experts as directors of cooperatives like Gokul Dairy, whose annual turnover is over ₹500 crore, a move that the Opposition likened to "murdering democracy".

While four of the directors will have voting rights, the fifth, who is not below the rank of an assistant registrar, cannot vote. Kolhapur District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Ltd, which sells milk and dairy products under the Gokul brand, is caught in a battle between the ruling Mahayuti alliance and Congress for its control, after Congress leader Satej Patil's panel won recent elections to its board.

The move is seen as an attempt by the BJP-led alliance to control the Gokul cooperative. In the recently held elections to its board, Patil's panel won 13 of the 25 seats, while the Mahayuti-backed panel won 12. While Patil's panel had the numbers to appoint its chairman for Gokul Dairy, the ruling alliance prevented it by staying away from the board meeting. Patil's panel still went ahead and elected its chairman. However, there was no administrative approval for it.


The Bombay HC has ordered that a new meeting be convened on November 10 to elect the chairman, following a plea by Patil's panel. Patil has vowed to challenge the decision. "This is a decision that goes against the 5.5 lakh milk-producing farmers who have voted for us. If the government doesn't want to accept the public mandate, then it should cancel all cooperative, municipal and other elections and appoint their own people everywhere," he said.

UBT Sena's Sanjay Raut said, "This is nothing but murdering democracy. They want to dismantle all our cooperatives like Gokul and hand it over to Gujarat's Amul; this is their game plan."