Prateek Tanmay
3 min readSuratJul 17, 2026 10:47 PM IST
The BJP-backed Sahkar panel won 15 of the 16 seats in the board of the Surat-Tapi District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union, popularly called SUMUL Dairy.
With one seat going to an independent, the Congress-backed Pashupalak Heet Rakshak Samiti, which held three seats in the earlier body, has been wiped out.
The elections to the board of directors of the dairy, which is part of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, owner of the Amul brand, was held on July 15.
Before the elections, the Congress had shifted 11 of its candidates to a “safe place to protect them from being influenced” after the Sahkar panel won five seats uncontested. However, on the last day of withdrawal of nominations on July 4, two more seats were declared uncontested by the BJP panel, leaving nine seats to be contested.
The seats that went uncontested are mostly from Surat district representing the milk unions of Mangrol, Uchhal, Valod, Kamrej, Palsana, Bardoli and Choryasi, where BJP MLA Sandip Desai won. Former vice chairman of Sumul Dairy Raju Pathak won from Mangrol seat uncontested.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Choryasi MLA Desai said he will accept one of the top posts in SUMUL Dairy board if the party decides so.
“The BJP has made a clean sweep. In the last two terms of the Sumul Dairy, there were three elected members of the Congress in the board. We will work on the Mahuva seat (where an independent candidate won) in the coming days. The state parliamentary board will decide the chairman and vice chairman. I have not demanded the chairman or vice chairman post, but if the party gives one of the posts to me, I will accept it.”
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The nine seats that went to the polls are Mahuva (65 votes), Olpad (39 votes), Mandvi (129 votes), Umarpada (60 votes), Songadh (175 votes), Vyara (90 votes), Dolvan (52 votes), Nizar (51 votes) and Kukarmunda (43 votes). A few rebel BJP leaders and Congress candidates contested as part of the Pashu Palak Hit Rakshak Samithi. A total of 21 candidates were in the poll fray from nine seats. Mahuva seat went to independent candidate Dhananjay Patel, who defeated Sahkar panel’s Jigar Naik by 10 votes.
Though the BJP panel had a clean sweep, a few winners had a close contest in the elections. Sahkar panel candidates won by just one vote each from Kukarmunda and Nizar seats and by two votes from Vyara seat – all these milk unions falling in Tapi district.
Congress leader Darshan Naik said, “We are analysing the results declared today, and we will continue to fight against the BJP in the cooperative sector.”
The Sumul Dairy comprises 19 directors (members) including three nominated members, each representing the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the National Dairy Development Board, and the Surat district Registrar. The annual turnover of Sumul Dairy is around Rs 6,500 crores, and it has around 2.5 lakh members (cattle rearers) spread across Surat and Tapi districts. On all 16 seats, there are 1,003 registered voters, who are presidents of milk committees spread across 16 talukas in Surat and Tapi.
