Cabinet amends Co-Operative Act to capture ‘Gokul’

Mumbai: The Maharashtra state cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, passed a controversial amendment to the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act on Wednesday permitting appointment of four government-nominated members with voting rights to cooperative societies boasting a turnover exceeding Rs 500 crore.

The decision would effectively alter board arithmetics of the Kolhapur District Cooperative Milk Producers Association (Gokul) and help the ruling Mahayuti alliance to wrest control of the body from Congress leader Satej Patil’s faction.

The strategic legislative maneuver amends Section 73AAA (2) of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960.

Under the newly approved provisions, the state government will appoint five nominees to the committees of these high-turnover societies. While one nominee must be a government official not below the rank of Assistant Registrar who will not possess voting rights, the remaining four will be "expert" individuals experienced in the society's operations, and crucially, they will be granted full voting rights on the board of directors.

The cabinet clarified that these nominated members will not be eligible to contest elections for office-bearer positions, and this specific amendment will not apply to District Central Cooperative Banks.

This amendment is being viewed as a direct, surgical strike aimed at the Gokul cooperative dairy in Kolhapur. In the recently concluded elections, the Rajarshi Shahu Shetkari Samvichari Aghadi, led by Satej Patil, secured a clear mandate by winning 13 out of 25 seats, leaving the ruling Mahayuti alliance with 12 seats.

By injecting four government-appointed voters into the board the Mahayuti can artificially inflate its numbers to 16, thereby reducing Patil’s panel to a minority and hijacking the upcoming election for the dairy board's chairman.

Political Backlash

The decision has triggered a fierce political backlash. Satej Patil aggressively condemned the move as the strangulation of democracy, warning that he is prepared to take the battle to the streets to protect the mandate delivered by 5.5 lakh farmers.

Mocking the Mahayuti's desperation to manufacture a quorum, Patil suggested that if the ruling alliance is so fond of overriding numbers, they should support his party to secure the Mayor's post in the municipal corporation where his faction is short by five corporators.

Delivering a stark warning to the state government, Patil reminded the Mahayuti that power is transient, referencing Atal Bihari Vajpayee's single-vote defeat, and declared that the opposition will remember this political engineering when the state goes to the polls in 2029.