Even as the ruling Mahayuti constituents continue to bicker over Legislative Council elections, the parties seem to have mended their differences to contest the elections to Maharashtra’s biggest cooperative milk union Gokul.
The forthcoming election to Kolhapur District Cooperative Milk Producers Union, better known as Gokul, has been in the centre of controversy due to political infighting between the allies, appointment of an administrator and court intervention.
In 2021, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) contested the election under the leadership of then minister and senior Congress MLC Satej Patil and undivided NCP minister Hasan Mushrif. They captured control of Gokul, ending the 30-year-long dominance of former MLA Mahadevrao Mahadik and the late former MLA P N Patil.
Upon taking charge, Mushrif and Satej Patil pledged to manage Gokul solely in the interest of dairy farmers. However, political equations in the state changed within just a year. The subsequent splits in the Shiv Sena and the NCP resulted in Mushrif and others joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP). Although the BJP was part of the ruling coalition in the state, Mushrif maintained his stance in Gokul. He publicly affirmed his friendship with Satej Patil in the cooperative sector, stating that despite being political opponents at the state level, they remained allies in cooperative affairs. It, however, did not last long, with the BJP-supported independent MLA Shivaji Patil started levelling allegations against Mushrif. Buckling under the pressure from the BJP, Mushrif was forced to abandon his “opponents in the state, but friends in cooperatives” stance.
Gokul was established on March 16, 1963. Since then, it has achieved many landmarks in milk procurement, animal health, breeding, milk processing, product making and marketing. Gokul’s turnover for the year 2024-25 was Rs 3,966.28 crore. It is associated with almost 4,41,000 milk producers in and around Kolhapur district. Milk is collected from 8,009 village-level primary societies in 1,810 villages.
“Gokul is linked to the daily life of milk producers, the majority of whom are marginal farmers. Plus, women are emotionally linked to Gokul as the dairy deposits money into their accounts directly. It helps fulfill day-to-day needs of families in Kolhapur belt which is one of the key reasons of economic stability, less migration and comparative better lifestyle in this part of the state,” said Vasant Bhosle, senior journalist and political commentator, who has spent decades in covering the politics of western Maharashtra.
According to Bhosle, the BJP was keen on making inroads in Gokul. “The BJP hasn’t been able to crack this test yet as all politicians chose to fight within groups, sometimes irrespective of political affiliations. Realising the political importance of Gokul, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis himself intervened and ensured that all Mahayuti leaders unite to fight the election this year,” he said.
Politics
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Keeping the local political differences aside, the ruling Mahayuti on Saturday announced the formation of the ‘Chhatrapati Shahu Shetkari Vikas Aghadi’ to contest the Gokul elections together. The decision to contest the ‘Gokul’ election unitedly as the Mahayuti was taken at a meeting of key leaders held at the Residency Club, in the presence of Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil. During the meeting, preliminary discussions took place on contesting the election together, collecting resolutions (tharaav), and seat-sharing. While providing information after the meeting, Jan Surajya MLA Vinay Kore stated that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had instructed them to hold a meeting of Mahayuti leaders. Kolhapur Guardian Minister Prakash Abitkar, Medical Education Minister Hasan Mushrif, BJP MP Dhananjay Mahadik, MLA Amal Mahadik, and Jansurajya Yuva Morcha State President Samit Kadam were present at the meeting.
Challenging Mahayuti solely will be former Congress minister and MLC Satej Patil. “The situation isn’t new to me. I fought alone in the municipal corporation and Zilla Parishad polls as well and they (three parties of Mahayuti) couldn’t defeat me, so they had to come together. The members of Mahayuti have no consensus, they are being brought together forcefully and voters know it very well,” he said.
Satej Patil said it was his leadership which ensured profits to milk producers from 2021. “I am sure that voters will choose us over the Mahayuti which is more interested in creating controversies than actual work,” he said.
Delay in elections
Following the expiration of the term of the existing directors of Gokul, an order appointing an administrator was issued on May 4. A five-member administrative board was appointed. This order was issued under the relevant section of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960.
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Rajkumar Patil, Divisional Deputy Registrar, Pune division, issued this order. It was stated that this decision was taken because the tenure of the board of directors has ended and to ensure that no difficulties arise in future operations.
The former directors of Gokul approached the apex court regarding who should hold the powers until a new Board of Directors is elected following the conclusion of the five-year term. Previously, the Board held the authority to make policy decisions until a new Board was constituted. However, since this rule was subsequently removed, the powers of the former Board of Directors had ceased. A petition was filed in the Supreme Court against this decision and against the moves to appoint an administrator.
The Supreme Court ordered that the elections be held within the next 90 days. The Supreme Court also directed the parties to approach the Kolhapur Circuit Bench of the Bombay High Court regarding the dispute over the appointment of an administrator.
On May 26, the schedule for the voter list, a key phase of the much-discussed five-yearly election, was announced. It was approved by Rajkumar Patil, the Divisional Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies (Dairy). With the commencement of the resolution (tharaav) process, the office of the Assistant Registrar has started sending prescribed resolution forms to the dairy societies.
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Meanwhile, 1,050 out of the 1,320 societies currently under liquidation are included in the cut-off date for the voter list, and these societies will also be included in the resolution process. Each society will nominate a representative who will act as a voter in this election. As of January 31, 2026, there are 5,981 member societies; however, only 5,470 of these will be included based on the May 4, 2023, cut-off date. The Circuit Bench had directed that the election process should not be carried out until a decision is reached regarding the societies in liquidation. The entire voter list program will span 36 days. From June 2 to July 1, the process of finalising representatives through resolutions at the society level will be underway, with July 1 being the final deadline for submitting these resolutions.
