How Congress lost one cooperative after another to BJP in Gujarat

In December 2022, just after the historical win of 156 seats in Gujarat Assembly polls, the BJP won the Amul cooperative election, emerging at the helm of the coveted Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited, popularly called Amul Dairy. By winning Amul, the last of the 18 milk cooperatives from the Congress, the BJP dislodged the party from yet another bastion marking its end in its stronghold districts of Anand and Kheda in central Gujarat.

Noticeably, in 2017, the Congress had won five of the region’s seven constituencies — Anand, Petlad, Borsad, Angkala, and Sojitra. The BJP had bagged two — Umreth and Khambath.

“Anand and neighbouring district Kheda were known in Gujarat as Charotar or centre of gold. In those days (early 1990s), Anand would have at least one person per house who had travelled or stayed abroad in countries like the UK, Canada or Australia. The farmers had a great irrigation system even before the government brought in any. During the same time, the dairy business had also begun to thrive bringing in more money into the districts,” Bhanu Parmar, a political analyst based in Gujarat, tells The Federal.

“The milk business gave the BJP it’s inroad into the rural areas of the state. This was made possible due to Patidars, who had supported BJP’s entry into the state post 1992. The Patels have been traditionally into milk and farming. While the Congress had dominance over rural areas between early 1990s to mid 2000, the BJP had understood soon enough that milk federation leaders usually enter the political arena on Congress’ side. For instance, former Amul vice-chairman Rajendrasihn Parmar was Congress candidate from Borsat in 2017,” Parmar says.

The BJP had first attempted to win the Amul dairy cooperative polls in 2015, but did not succeed. Back then, every poll used to be an ugly political slugfest for winning the Kaira Milk Union (Amul), the original Amul cooperative built by Tribhuvandas Patel and Verghese Kurien. It was the only unaffiliated entity among the 17 district unions affiliated to the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), whose board was not controlled by the ruling BJP until last year.

In 2015, post BJP’s defeat in the Amul cooperative polls, the government, citing the new Gujarat Cooperative Societies Act (Amendment) 2015, reduced the term of elected office-bearers from 5 years to 2.5 years. Following this, the BJP government prepared a list of 100 big and small cooperative societies where government custodians were appointed dissolving the elected body. Besides, the new act also mandated online audit of cooperative societies.

This was the first move made by the BJP to influence cooperatives ahead of the 2015 elections to local bodies.

Back then, only a few of these rural cooperatives had BJP supporters. Noticeably, within a couple of hours of the Governor’s assent to the bill in April 2015, the Anadiben Patel-led BJP government in a cabinet meeting, appointed custodians at two of the most powerful cooperative societies — Mehsana Dudh Utpadak Sahkari Mandali (MDUSM) and Mehsana District Cooperative Bank, which still had Congress influence.

Following the move, Natu Patel, an influential leader from MDSUM and a former Congressman, joined the BJP. Soon, the third big cooperative where BJP dislodged the Congress was the Gujarat State Co-operative Marketing Federation Limited (GUJCOMASOL), chaired by Natu Patel.

Thus, the BJP government began taking charge of the cooperatives in Gujarat.

However, the BJP did not limit itself to milk cooperatives. By December 2022, the ruling party had also won control over the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), Botad, a farmer dominated agrarian constituency. The BJP had lost to Congress five years back. BJP-backed candidates led by former Botad APMC chairman Dhirajlal Kalathiya won 10 out of 14 seats, a BJP rebel group backed by Congress won four while the Aam Aadmi Party, a first-timer, drew a blank.

Noticeably, besides the farmer candidate of the ruling party, the two trader candidates also won unopposed in Botad APMC taking its tally to 12 in the APMC.

In February 2022, the BJP won the elections to the Kheda District Cooperative Bank, winning nine of the 17 contested seats while Congress could manage only nine. The BJP won the cooperative for the first time, wrapping another stronghold of the Congress into its fold.

“The cooperatives were the backbone of the Congress in Gujarat and one of the party’s biggest strengths in rural districts. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, while Congress drew a blank as its hold over its vote bank waned off, BJP bettered its vote share. In 2022 states polls, 70 per cent of the new seats that BJP added to its tally were from rural areas. If Congress wants to bounce back in 2024 polls, it has to reconnect with its vote base in rural districts and for that to happen gaining control of the cooperatives is the key,” told Manishi Jani, an Ahmedabad-based political analyst.

“If Congress regains its foothold within the OBC and tribal vote bank that has been the party’s stronghold since three decades, it will have a direct impact on at least two to three seats in north Gujarat, three seats in central Gujarat, and one or two seats in Saurashtra,” adds Jani.

Currently, the BJP controls 302 of the 360 major cooperative institutions in Gujarat, which were originally completely ruled by the Congress. There are 24 district cooperative sanghs in Gujarat out which the BJP controls 18 and the Congress five. Out of 22 large sugar cooperative societies, BJP is in charge of 18 and the Congress of four while out of 224 Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC)’s in Gujarat, 197 are controlled by the BJP, 18 are under the authority of Congress and the remaining 9 APMCs are operated by appointed administrators of the government.

Similarly, out of 22 cooperative industrial societies, the BJP controls 13. Of the 30 district purchasing and selling cooperative unions, BJP has controls over 27, while the Congress controls only three.

“Cooperative activity has been the most important aspect of Gujarat politics since the formation of the state. Cooperatives provide jobs and operate a constitute a huge part of the state economy but most importantly majority of the well-known leaders of the Gujarat Congress have come from cooperatives,” tells Darshan Nayak, Congress leader and director of Sayan Sugar Cooperative, Surat.

“On December 2017, then Savjibhai Dhol, chairman of the Gondal Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) and a Congress leader was seated on the dais of Modi’s Rajkot rally. The Congress, that used to dominate most APMCs did not get alarmed by the move. In fact, when some of us local leaders tried to raise an alarm, senior leaders laughed it off and called it BJP’s desperate and failed attempt to woo rural vote. Today, Dhol is still the chairman of the Gondal APMC, the largest in the state, but he is a BJP member. Leaders like Dhol and others were part of a strong cooperative movement of Gujarat which had benefitted the Congress for decades and is now being exploited by the BJP to its advantage,” added Nayak.