MUMBAI: After badly losing the prestigious electoral battle to control of Kolhapur's influential Gokul Milk Cooperative Federation to the Congress-led front, the BJP-led Maharashtra government decided to appoint five government-nominated directors, giving voting rights to four with the plan to wrestle control over Gokul from the opposition front.
Maharashtra former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan alleged that this move by the BJP-led government is anti-constitutional and a broad daylight robbery of public institutions.
Prithviraj Chavan said this is a murder of democracy and a violation of the tenets of the constitution. He said BJP failed to win the majority of the seats in the closely contested and high-voltage Gokul Milk Federation elections, so they came out with nefarious anti-constitutional and democracy proposal to snatch control over Gokul from the opposition.
The decision of the BJP to appoint the BJP-led government-appointed members on the Gokul board with voting rights has triggered a fresh confrontation between the ruling Mahayuti alliance and the Opposition Congress, with Congress leader Satej Patil accusing the government of attempting to overturn the mandate delivered by milk producers in the recent elections.
Surprisingly, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday approved a proposal to amend the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, paving the way for the appointment of four expert directors and one government officer of Deputy Registrar rank to the boards of apex cooperative institutions such as Gokul.
While the four expert directors will have voting rights, they will not be eligible to contest the election for the chairperson's post. The proposed provision will not apply to district cooperative banks. With this move, BJP will not only intrude in Gokul, but it will take control as well that they lost in the electoral battle.
The timing of the decision has assumed political significance as the Congress-led panel headed by senior Congress leader Satej Patil recently defeated the Mahayuti-backed panel in the Gokul elections, winning 13 of the 25 seats against the ruling alliance's 12.
Reacting to the Cabinet decision, Satej Patil criticised the government, saying it was unfortunate that an elected mandate was being undermined through changes in the cooperative law. He announced that he would challenge the decision in the Bombay High Court.
"If the government's policy is to disregard the people's mandate and take decisions according to its own wishes, then there is no point in holding elections. It would be better to cancel all elections, appoint government nominees, and let them run sugar factories, spinning mills, and municipal corporations," Patil said.
Gokul was established in 1963; it is one of Maharashtra's largest cooperative dairy institutions, with approximately 4.41 lakh milk producers associated with it through 8,009 village-level primary societies across nearly 1,810 villages. Its annual turnover is Rs 3,966.28 crore in 2024-25. Gokul is not merely a major economic institution but also an influential centre of rural cooperative politics.