Gujarat: Amul Dairy director joins Congress five months after leaving party for BJP

A cooperative leader and director of Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union, the country’s oldest dairy union best known as Amul Dairy, returned to the Congress fold on Tuesday.

Juvansinh Chauhan, a two-term Amul director, had served the Congress for nearly two decades before joining the BJP ahead of the election of the president of the dairy in February this year.

He rejoined his former party with his supporters in the presence of Congress state president Shaktisinh Gohil at a function in the party’s headquarters ‘Rajiv Bhavan’.

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Gohil said Chauhan was unhappy with rising political interference in the dairy union by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“Gujarat takes pride in the Amul cooperative model. The then Congress government helped it grow and even helped in running it, making it a leading cooperative in the world. Because of increasing political interference, Chauhan decided to join us along with his team,” Gohil told reporters.

Amul has 13 elected representatives as directors, a majority of whom are currently with the BJP which had in February this year wrested control of the union after Vipul Patel, a candidate backed by it, was elected its chairman.

Chauuhan was among the four directors from Congress who had joined the BJP ahead of the election.