Chaudhary said, “I can influence entire North Gujarat’s five districts and I doubt that being from dairy cooperative will help win outside ones area.” There is also talk that the son of the chairman of Banas Dairy Parthi Bahtol had asked for a BJP ticket from Palanpur but was denied one.

Kaira Diary chairman Ramsinh Parmar, who lost to BJP’s Bhagwansinh Chauhan in the 2002 wave from Thasra, said, “As a dairy chairman, we are actively involved at the rural level.”

He said his dairy had recently lent Rs 100 crore for farmers to purchase cattle. “There is strong anti-Modi wave among farmers who are now fuming over the Rs 100 hike in the price of sulphate bags.” He said a bag that costs Rs 200 now costs Rs 312.

In Vadodara, Srivastav was made chairman by the BJP-led government to wrest power from the Congress-dominated Baroda Dairy. Recently, Srivastav faced strong resentment from dairy farmers after he ordered the closure of over 150 village milk producers’ committees recently.