Gandhinagar: Congress turncoat and Chairman of Amul Dairy for over 33 years, Ramsinh Parmar was “unanimously” elected as Chairman of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), country’s milk cooperative goliath, in an election held on Monday at the Anand headquarters of the Federation.
“A meeting of the chairmen of 18-member cooperative dairies was held on Saturday and today (Monday) unanimously elected experienced and senior cooperative leader Ramsinh Parmar as Chairman and Panchmahal Dairy Chairman Jetha Bharvad as Vice Chairman of the Federation,” Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, senior Cabinet Minister in Vijay Rupani government, told the media.
Earlier, an informal meeting was held at Gandhinagar, where chairpersons and other officer-bearers of 15 of the total 16 milk federations of the state were present. Cabinet Ministers like Chudasama and Kaushik Patel were also present. It was decided then that the members of the confederation will go along with the BJP high command’s decision regarding the election.
GCMMF, the marketing arm of 18-member dairies that own brand Amul, procures approximately 18 million liter milk from over 18,500 village milk cooperative societies and over 3.6 million milk producer members.
The Federation is the country’s largest milk cooperative federation with a turnover of Rs 38,000 crore. The GCMMF is the apex body that generally decides on returns to the milk producers and pricing of milk for consumers.
The elections, just a formality, to top two posts at GCMMF is officially held every two-and-a-half years where the chairmen of the member dairies who owe affiliation to political parties in the state, select one on consensus among themselves primarily on party lines. A proper competitive election was held way back in 1973, where polling had taken place.
Prior to the 2017 state assembly elections, Ramsinh Parmar, a long-time Congressman, switched sides to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and contested from the same and lost. The former Gujarat Minister of State for Health and Banas Dairy Chairman, Shankar Chaudhary, who also lost in the 2017 polls was also a top contender for the GCMMF post.
IANS