Mushrif defends govt appointing four directors to Gokul, says repeat election was the alternative

The state government has appointed four directors to the Gokul union. Satej Patil and the Opposition have attacked the government over the move, alleging it is a ploy to take control of the union. Minister Hasan Mushrif responded to the allegations while speaking to the media. He claimed that had these four directors not been appointed, the Gokul election would have had to be held again.

Mushrif said Rahul Gandhi and the Opposition had not understood the matter. According to him, Rahul Gandhi sees vote theft everywhere, but the Gokul case is not like that. Citing Gokul's rules and bylaws, Mushrif answered all the issues raised by the Opposition.

Mushrif said that after the Gokul election, the members gave an odd verdict. Thirteen Congress members and 12 Mahayuti members were elected. Under the body's rules, a quorum of 14 is required to elect the chairman. Without a quorum, neither can the chairman be elected nor a meeting held. Mushrif said that if the law overrode that rule, the majority's decision might have been accepted, but meeting the bylaw's quorum requirement was legally necessary.

He said a meeting had been held to elect the chairman. The 12 members of the Opposition, as he put it, stayed absent and the quorum was not met. According to Mushrif, the same situation would have arisen had the next meeting been held on the 10th. He claimed that under the election rules and the Maharashtra cooperative law, if a chairman election meeting is adjourned two or three times, an administrator must be appointed, and elections are held after an administrator is appointed. Mushrif said that if two or three more meetings had been held, an administrator would have come to Gokul under the rules, and elections would have followed.

Mushrif said the Maharashtra cooperative law had created a deadlock. According to him, no other cooperative body has such a bylaw; only Gokul does. He said that if the deadlock was to be removed, democracy upheld and the business left in the hands of the 25 members, only the government could remove it. For that reason, in his words, the government appointed an administrator and removed the hurdle of bylaws and rules, to put power in the hands of elected people.

Mushrif said he carries the responsibility of the Opposition. According to him, the people did not give him a mandate to attend meetings and help others become chairman; they gave him a mandate to sit in the Opposition. He asked how, in that case, he could have attended their meeting. He said the responsibility for ending the deadlock therefore lay with the government, and that the government decided yesterday to appoint four directors. According to Mushrif, the action was taken so that the deadlock is removed, power stays in the hands of elected people and democracy is maintained. Finally, he said those making the allegations are making false charges without having the facts.