Vadodara: Elections for the top two posts in the powerful Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) will be held in Milk City Anand on Tuesday, after a gap of two and a half years. The heads of 18 co-operative milk unions of Gujarat, who are members of the GCMMF board, will elect the new chairman and vice-chairman of the federation, which markets dairy products under the brand name Amul. Currently, the chairman of the Sabarkantha District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Limited (Sabar Dairy), Shamal Patel, and Kutch-based Sarhad Dairy’s chairman, Valamji Humbal, are holding the two top posts. The duo, who were elected to these posts in July 2020, have already served two terms of two and a half years each. Observers point out that the recent developments at Himmatnagar, where milk producers linked to Sabar Dairy staged protests which spiralled into violent clashes with the police, have put Sabar Dairy’s chief, Shamal Patel, on a sticky wicket. Sources said a decision on the new chairman and vice-chairman will be taken by the leadership of the BJP, given the fact that the saffron party now has complete hold of all the milk unions of Gujarat. Since its inception in 1973, GCMMF was headed by its founder chairman, the late Dr Verghese Kurien, who stepped down in 2006. He was the last non-political chairman of the federation. Since 2006, the GCMMF chairmanship has been held by Banaskantha-based Banas Dairy (Parthi Bhatol), Mehsana-based Dudhsagar Dairy (Vipul Chaudhary), Sabarkantha-based Sabar Dairy (earlier Jetha Patel and now Shamal Patel), and Anand-based Amul Dairy (Ramsinh Parmar). Banas, Mehsana, Sabar and Amul are the four biggest milk unions of Gujarat.The post of vice-chairman, which was created in 2015 through an amendment to GCMMF bylaws, was first held by Panchmahals-based Panchamrut Dairy’s chief, Jetha Bharwad, and is currently held by Humbal. Anand district collector Praveen Chaudhary told TOI that the election will be held from 11am onwards according to the GCMMF bylaws presented to him. GCMMF has a unique voting pattern where all district dairy union chiefs who are board members have one normal vote each. In addition, they carry additional votes that are counted based on the business that the dairies they head transact with the federation in the financial year.With 3.6 million dairy farmers associated with the 18 milk unions of Gujarat, GCMMF is the world’s largest farmer-owned dairy cooperative. Its group brand turnover is more than $11 billion, while it handles more than 12 billion litres of milk every year.
