Banas dairy chairman Parthi Bhatol has been unanimously re-elected as chairman of the Rs 6,700-crore Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns and markets Asia's largest milk brand -Amul.
“It was unanimously decided to re-elect me as the chairman of the apex co-operative milk marketing body for the next three years,” said Bhatol here on Friday after getting elected for the second term.
The high-profile election also saw state political stalwarts camping in Anand, GCMMF headquarter. This included Amit Shah, state home minister, Dilip Sanghani, agriculture and co-operative minister, and Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, former agriculture minister.
Bhatol, who took over as chairman of the federation after father of ‘White Revolution’ Verghese Kurien was forced to quite GCMMF, has been holding this key position since 2005.
The federation comprises 13 district unions with 661 votes. The number of votes with each union is based on the quantum of milk they procure. The Mehsana union has the highest 141 votes followed by the Banaskantha union.
Mehsana union chairman Vipul Chaudhry was considered to be one of the main contenders for the top post. However, Chaudhry proposed the name of Bhatol during the election which was supported by Ramsinh Parmarm, chairman of the Anand union.
More From This Section
Chairmen of a couple of unions have political affiliations. Parmar and Govindbhai Ranparia, Rajkot dairy chairman, are Congressmen, while Chaudhry, Madhu Srivastav of Vadodara dairy, and Bhupendrasinh Solanki, chairman of Panchmahals dairy, are from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The BJP camp has 342 votes and the Congress 113 in the federation while 206 votes are with those who do not have direct political affiliations. The GCMMF elections were held today after a delay of more than seven months.