BJP legislator Jetha Bharwad’s panel defeated former Godhra BJP Parliamentarian Bhupendrasinh Solanki in the Panchmahals Dairy Milk Cooperative — Panchamrut dairy — elections, winning 12 of the total 15 seats.

Solanki has 14 years of experience in the dairy sector and had held the post of chairman for three consecutive time. The Congress panel failed to win a single seat.

In all, three women candidates won the elections, one of them being from the Bharwad panel. The 15-member Board of Directors will now elect the chairman. The elections witnessed 99.29 per cent voter turnout on Saturday. This is one of the highest voting in the Panchamrut dairy elections. Of the total 1,131 registered voters, 1,123 cast their votes. Eight voters did not turn up.

Solanki has not been in the good books of the BJP for quite sometime. He was denied a ticket for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Some party members also filed graft charges against him. The government even tried to appoint an administrator on the board during his term as the chairman. There was also a case of embezzlement registered against him. Incidentally, Solanki at one point was heading three important positions in the party: that of the MP from Godhra, state BJP vice-president and also chairman of the Panchamrut dairy.

He had put up an advertisement in a local daily with Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s picture asking the village milk society candidates to vote in favour of his panel. The advertisement carried a picture of Modi alongside Solanki, wishing Happy Diwali and asking chairmen of the Panchamahals and Dahod district milk societies to vote for the “kite” symbol of the BJP’s Vikas panel.

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