Rahul Gandhi criticises Maharashtra government's move to appoint five directors to Gokul Dairy after the Congress-backed panel won the recent election.
Congress leader Satej Patil has sparked a political controversy by accusing the Mahayuti government in Maharashtra of attempting to take control of the Kolhapur District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union, better known as Gokul Dairy, and eventually hand it over to Gujarat-based Amul.
The dispute erupted following a state cabinet decision on November 4 to amend cooperative laws and appoint five government directors to the Gokul milk union, a move Patil alleged was designed to overturn the recent election mandate.
In the recently concluded Gokul elections, the Congress-backed panel led by Satej Patil won a majority, securing 13 of the 25 director seats, while the Mahayuti-backed panel secured 12. By amending the rules after the election to appoint five new directors, four of whom would have voting rights, the state government could potentially increase the Mahayuti’s strength and enable it to take control, political observers said.
“The government has insulted the people of Kolhapur and hurt their self-respect. This is an utterly outrageous attempt to reject the clear mandate given by the people of Kolhapur in the election. Unable to come to terms with their electoral defeat, they are now misusing power,” Patil said.
A protest march would be taken out on November 9 from Dasara Chowk to the district collector’s office in Kolhapur against the government’s decision, he added.
The Congress leader alleged a broader “sinister plot” by the BJP to systematically eliminate regional milk brands, leaving only Amul and Mother Dairy in the Indian market. He claimed that the government’s intervention was aimed at putting an “Amul sticker” on the locally trusted Gokul brand.
Patil claimed that the new order issued by the state government excluded other sugar factories and district central cooperative banks. He alleged that the special legislation had been drafted with the sole intention of targeting the Gokul Milk Union. He further claimed that Gokul was the second-largest milk union in the country after Amul.
According to him, Gokul is a vital cooperative lifeline in the region, collecting roughly 20 lakh litres of milk daily and distributing Rs 100 crore every 10 days to more than 5.5 lakh local dairy farmers.
Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi publicly backed Patil on social media, calling the post-election amendment a “theft of milk producers’ votes” and an attempt to manipulate democracy.
In a post on X earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi said that after milk producers defeated the BJP, the party changed the rules after the election to “steal the majority”. This amounted to “adulteration in the mandate”, he wrote.
