Baroda Dairy director Maharaul quits Congress, joins BJP

Ahead of the crucial election to the post of chairman and vice-chairman of the Baroda District Co-Operative Milk Producers’ Union Limited (Baroda Dairy) on April 13, one of the directors, Kripalsinh Maharaul, on Monday quit the Congress party and joined the BJP in Gandhinagar, along with five others from rural milk producer unions of the districts.

Maharaul, who is also the director of Sankheda APMC, joined the BJP in the presence of party general secretary Pradipsinh Vaghela, Savli MLA Ketan Inamdar, Karjan MLA Akshay Patel and Vadodara District BJP President Satish Patel — also a director of Baroda Dairy.

Along with Maharaul, the BJP also inducted Arjunsinh Rathod, sarpanch of Sarsindha village of Sankheda taluka in Chhota Udepur district, and Pramodsinh Maharaul, president of the milk union of the village, along with presidents of the milk producer unions — Lalkrishna Rathwa of Muldhara village in Chhota Udepur and Bhanusinh Solanki of Deroli village in Karjan taluka of Vadodara district.

At the event, Vaghela said, “Right from the smallest to the biggest cooperatives, the Congress misused the institutions to benefit their family.

However, due to the hardwork of BJP workers and the diligence of the rural milk producers, today, most cooperatives are being run by the BJP. Baroda Dairy director and APMC Sankheda director, Kripalsinh Maharaul, and others have joined the BJP officially. The BJP is working to increase the incomes of the milk producers and they have joined us to recognise these efforts.”

The top posts of Baroda Dairy had fallen vacant after the resignations of chairman Dinesh Patel and vice-chairman GB Solanki in a span of one week in February this year, after a spate of allegations by Inamdar regarding the functioning of the dairy.

Since September 2021, Inamdar led a series of agitations of milk producers against Baroda Dairy — first for an increase in remuneration to milk farmers, and recently, accusing the management of malpractice and corruption. While Dinesh Patel resigned as chairman of the dairy after unsuccessfully contesting the Gujarat Assembly polls as an independent, Solanki said that he resigned to “end the chaos” created by “critical” persons so that the “dairy can function” in its maximum capacity.

The first phase of the five-year term of the two posts ends in July this year.