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The board of directors of India’s largest milk federation, the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), today unanimously elected Jethabhai Patel, a cooperative leader from North Gujarat as the new Chairman. GCMMF sells milk products under the ‘Amul’ brand.
Patel’s election as GCMMF Chairman comes after a long-drawn legal battle between the former Chairman, Vipul Chaudhary, and the rest of the board members, who had forcibly ousted Chaudhary by passing a no-confidence motion against him.
All the 17 board members, including Chaudhary himself, were present for the election held on Friday at Anand and unanimously elected Patel to the top post in the Rs 18,000-crore milk federation.
Speaking to Business Line , Patel said, “All the 17 directors of the member unions were present and I am happy that all of them have shown confidence and trust in me.”
“We have received good support from the party and the state leadership. Chief Minister Anandiben Patel was of the opinion that the election should be held without any controversy and that the decision should be in the interest of the dairy farmers of the State,” added Patel, who is also Chairman of the Sabarkantha Milk Union (Sabar Dairy), a post he has held since 2010.
The political dominance of the BJP in the GCMMF had caused trouble for former Chairman Chaudhary, whose sudden leaning towards the Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi cost him his post.
However, the other dairy members were seen falling in line as Patel’s name was supported by non-BJP director Ramsinghbhai Parmar of Amul Dairy. Parmar is a Congress MLA in the Gujarat Assembly. Patel’s nomination was proposed by Parthibhai Bhatol, Chairman of the Banaskantha Union (Banas Dairy) and ex-chairman GCMMF.
“The GCMMF Board has once again maintained its tradition of unanimous election of its Chairman since inception in 1973,” a GCMMF statement said.
“We will work towards providing better prices to dairy farmers, that will be our agenda,” said Patel.
GCMMF markets milk and milk products under the brand names ‘Amul’ and ‘Sagar’. The member unions of GCMMF on average procure 132 lakh litres of milk each day from 33 lakh milk producers living in over 17,000 villages of the State.
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