Why Gujarat cooperative society poll losses need BJP's long hard look

The reverses in Bardoli and Dholka stand out as the BJP has traditionally taken every cooperative election as seriously as an assembly seat contestGujarat’s cooperative sector has thrown up two unusual political results in two months. In mid-August, a BJP-backed panel lost the election in a powerful sugar cooperative in Bardoli—the Shree Khedut Sahakari Khand Udyog Mandli. The Congress-backed Kisan Parivartan Panel swept all 14 contested seats, ending the incumbent Sahakar Panel’s hold on one of south Gujarat’s most prominent sugar cooperatives.This is Gujarat’s first cooperative sugar factory, founded in 1955, and by its own reckoning Asia’s largest. It has 5,684 farmer-members, a crushing capacity of 10,000 tonnes of cane a day, and a captive 21 MW power plant that alone generates an estimated Rs 20 crore a year in electricity sales on top of its core sugar business.Supporters marked the win by driving tractors, the panel’s election symbol, through Bardoli’s streets. Now, this month, the ‘Congress leaning’ Kisan Vikas Panel won all 10 seats in Dholka APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee), a farmers’ body in Ahmedabad district. It unseated a BJP-backed panel that had held the APMC for over three decades. Among those defeated was Devesh Patel, the district BJP’s general secretary.Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi claimed a situation akin to a political storm had quietly kicked off in the rural heartlands of the state. The most intriguing aspect of the election in Dholka was the internal politics surrounding the party mandate. “Several candidates who had received the BJP mandate rebelled against the party, returned the mandate, and openly declared their support for the Kisan Vikas Panel. Amidst discussions regarding internal discontent and farmer resentment in Dholka’s local politics, the BJP-backed panel’s resounding defeat has raised questions about the organisation’s local leadership,” said Doshi, adding that the loss of such a key organisational office-bearer (Devesh Patel) has kicked off discussions regarding the grip on leadership. Taken individually, cooperative board elections are low-turnout, often clan- or caste-driven contests oriented entirely on hyper-local issues and promises. They are not necessarily seen as a barometer of larger public sentiment. However, the BJP, in the last decade, has taken every cooperative poll as seriously as an assembly seat contest because these cooperative bodies function as the party’s patronage machinery in their respective belts. They are thus approached with similar precision and resources allocated accordingly. Hence, these losses stand out. Beyond reflecting a simmering farmer discontent, which has indeed come to the BJP top leadership’s attention, it reflects the disarray in the leadership management.Both results also land against a backdrop of institutional friction. In January, the state government deferred elections to several cooperative society boards for six months, citing administrative strain from the ongoing voter-roll revision. Assembly polls in the state will be due by end-2027, giving the BJP enough time to fix the leaks. But it is reliably learnt that a poor monsoon in an El Nino year has impacted farmer sentiment far more than the government or the party might acknowledge at present.Subscribe to India Today Magazine- EndsPublished By: Akshita JollyPublished On: Sep 17, 2026 19:42 IST