Congress Loses Amul To BJP In Gujarat

Amul Dairy also known as Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Limited now has BJP leader Vipul Patel as its new chairman, wresting the post from Ramsinh Parmar, the previous leader who held the post for more than two decades.

The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) which markets its products under the brand name "Amul" held elections to its top positions on January 24. Ahead of the crucial elections, four directors of Amul had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Vice-Chairmanship of the co-operative was passed on to Kanti Sodha Parmar, who was a former Congress MLA but joined BJP recently. With this, the Congress has lost its foothold over the state's oldest dairy co-operative as the BJP has enjoyed a majority in the other 18 milk unions in the state that come under GCMMF.

Earlier, Home Minister Amit Shah had announced that Amul will be merged with five other cooperative societies to form a multi-state cooperative society (MSCS). "The government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving priority to natural agriculture and digital agriculture and for certification of natural products, the process to form a multi-state cooperative society by merging Amul and five other cooperative societies has been started," he had said. The MSCS will ensure the export of the products after its certification so that profit can go directly into the bank accounts of the farmers, he added.