The Gujarat High Court has stayed the no confidence motion from being taken up by the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation against its Chairman Vipul Chaudhary on Saturday.
The stay will be in place till November 11 when the court will resume hearing on the case.
As many as 14 Directors of the GCMMF Board, out of a total 17, had served a no-confidence notice on Choudhary. Despite repeated calls and messages, Choudhary could not be contacted.
Politicisation of co-operative movement in Gujarat has brought to limelight the functioning of GCMMF, which owns the Rs 20,000 crore Amul brand.
According to sources, the no confidence motion was triggered by Choudhary’s meeting Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi earlier this month in Ahmedabad.
The GCMMF chief was, apparently, eying to succeed , Chairperson of National Dairy Development Board Amrita Patel, who has sought retirement after November 30. The Centre is likely to extend Patel’s stay at NDDB until a suitable successor is found to pilot the ongoing Rs 17,000-crore National Dairy Plan that would run for a decade. With a majority of Directors revolting against him, Choudhary is facing the possibility of losing his GCMMF post.
Choudhary, also Chairman of Mehsana District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union (popularly called Doodhsagar Dairy), the largest constituent of GCMMF, has his godfather in former Chief Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela, leader of the Congress-led Opposition in the Assembly. In 2007, Choudhary joined the BJP and he was made GCMMF chief last year. However, despite being in the BJP, he was seen trying to get closer to the Congress once again, infuriating the ruling BJP.
He had also heaped praise on the late Varghese Kurien, founder of both GCMMF and NDDB. Kurien’s relations were also strained with the BJP Government that led to his ouster from NDDB in 2006. The state of affairs at Dudhsagar Dairy has turned controversial of late, with GCMMF Managing Director R. S. Sodhi taking exception to its functioning.
In a letter to Jalaben Desai, Vice-Chairman of Dudhsagar Dairy, Sodhi listed a number of unilateral steps taken by it without taking the Federation into confidence, resulting in huge financial losses.
These included an investment of Rs 300 crore for a processing and packaging plant at Daruheda with a capacity of 30 lakh litres against the permitted 9 lakh litre daily capacity, offering cattlefeed worth Rs 22.50 crore to Maharashtra for free, and selling milk powder to private parties at lower rates.