The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has secured a majority on the board of the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Limited, commonly known as Amul Dairy. The party won seven out of the nine seats on the board of directors in the elections held on Thursday, while the Congress party managed to win only two seats. Prior to the voting day, BJP-supported candidates had already won four seats unopposed, giving the party a strong foothold.
The counting of votes took place on Friday morning, and the results showed that the BJP had won a majority of the seats. Kanti Sodha Parmar won the Anand block with 79 votes, while Rajendrasinh Balwant Parmar won the Khambhat block with 84 votes. Beena Tejas Patel won the Petlad block with 83 votes, and incumbent chairman Vipul Patel won the Nadiad block with 83 votes. Ghela Mansinh Zhala won the Kathlal block with 79 votes, and Bhagwatsinh Parmar won the Matar block with 53 votes.
The Congress party’s candidates, Rajendrasinh Dhirsinhji Parmar and Bhura Laxman Solanki, won the Borsad and Kapadwanj blocks respectively, with 52 and 61 votes. Notably, Kesrisinh Solanki, a two-term former MLA who was suspended from the BJP last year, faced defeat in the Matar block. In the individual members category, Vijay Patel won with four votes.
The BJP’s victory gives the party a full majority on the milk union’s board, with 11 out of 13 seats. The party’s supported candidates had earlier won four seats unopposed from Thasra, Balasinor, Mehmedabad, and Virpur blocks. The election saw a high turnout of 97.48%, with 813 out of 834 voters exercising their franchise across nine blocks. A total of 24 candidates had contested the nine seats. The BJP’s win is seen as a significant victory for the party, and is expected to have implications for the dairy industry in the region.