AHMEDABAD: The BJP currently controls 302 of the 360 major co-operative institutions in Gujarat, which were originally completely ruled by Congress. The majority of the well-known leaders of the Gujarat Congress have come from cooperatives. BJP leaders also claim that the party controls 84 per cent of Gujarat’s cooperatives.
During the last assembly session, during a discussion, Minister of State for Cooperative Jagdish Vishwakarma stated, “The BJP government in the state has done real development of cooperative institutes in the state, as a result of which 84% of such institutes are governed by workers associated with BJP ideology.”
“Elections in the remaining 12% will be held, and BJP workers will win there as well. Administrators oversee only 3.8% of cooperative institutes,” Vishwakarma said. According to a private survey, Gujarat has 12 state-level cooperatives and 17 district and central cooperative banks. There are 19 district milk producers’ unions.
There are 24 District Co-operative Sanghs in Gujarat. The BJP controls 18 and the Congress five.
There are also 22 separate large sugar cooperative societies, of which the BJP is in charge of 18 and the Congress of four. There are 224 Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC)’s in Gujarat, 197 of which are controlled by the BJP. 18 are under the authority of Congress, and the remaining 9 APMCs are operated by appointed administrators.
Similarly, out of 22 co-operative industrial societies, the BJP controls nine and the Congress 13, and out of 30 district purchasing and selling co-operative unions, BJP has control over 27 while the Congress controls three. The survey results say the BJP controls 84 per cent of Gujarat cooperatives, while Congress only 12 per cent.
Cooperative activity has been the most important aspect of Gujarat politics from its beginning, Darshan Nayak, Congress leader and director of Sayan Sugar Cooperative in Surat district said, “Cooperatives provide jobs and operate a huge part of the economy.”