Rajesh Patil elected Gokul chairman as Fadnavis says he stands with law and institution

The election for the chairman's post of the Gokul milk union, on which the state's attention had been fixed, was completed today. The court has reserved the date for its final decision, but had directed that the chairman's election be held. The election process was completed today, and Mahayuti's Rajesh Patil became Gokul chairman.

In the directors' vote, the Mahayuti and the alliance of Satej Patil faced each other, and the Mahayuti won 16-13. In the Gokul election, the Mahayuti had lost 13-12, yet it took control on the strength of 4 accepted members.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that on Gokul he stands with the law and the institution. He said he had said earlier too that a kind of legal tangle had arisen. One group had 13 directors and the other 12, so the quorum was not being met and a chairman could not be made on the strength of one. According to Fadnavis, the government could have appointed directors immediately after the election. A DDR also exists, but the decision was taken once it became clear that there was no majority for the quorum.

Fadnavis said the High Court said yesterday that there was no flaw in the ordinance, and asked for the election to be completed with the votes of four persons kept separate. He said the government had said openly that if Satej Patil and Hasan Mushrif came together and decided, government-appointed directors would not have been sent. According to him, the Gokul election was given a political colour and Rahul Gandhi also entered it.

Responding to criticism of the appointment of directors, Fadnavis said the government had appointed people with experience in the cooperative sector to Gokul. He said that if one of them is a gynaecologist, what is wrong in that. He said that when the country's Leader of the Opposition has to pay attention himself, a gynaecologist is an ordinary person.

Fadnavis said Rahul Gandhi's agitation is the Congress's attempt to create distrust of all institutions, and to instil the belief that no institution will be able to deliver justice. According to him, Rahul Gandhi wants to create distrust of our Constitution.

He said ultra-leftists are trying to build such a system. These people have taken to the streets, so we too have come onto the streets to reply. Fadnavis said Rahul Gandhi wants to bring to India the system that came about in Nepal, and the opposition does not want to debate in Parliament, so we are replying by taking to the streets. In this way he backed the BJP's Save Democracy agitation.

Fadnavis said Rahul Gandhi is adopting here a method followed in other countries and is questioning institutions created under the Constitution. According to him, Rahul Gandhi says the Supreme Court, the RBI and all institutions are under pressure. Fadnavis said such a situation has arisen in some European countries, which is why we have taken to the streets. He said these "intellectual Naxalites" will be given a tit-for-tat reply, so they will have no effect.