Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has marked its entry into the cooperative sector of Gujarat by seizing control of agricultural produce market committee (APMC) in Bagasara town of Amreli district.
Kanti Satasiya, an AAP leader who was arrested recently for allegedly threatening and driving a woman to suicide, has been elected chairman of Bagasara APMC, wresting control of the cooperative body from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Satasiya, the 55-year-old cooperative leader who has been a member of BJP and Congress in turn before jumping the ship again and joining the AAP in 2022, had lost the December 2022 Assembly election from Dhari seat in Amreli to BJP’s JV Kakadiya by 8,717 votes. However, a year later, Satasiya was elected unopposed to the board of directors of Bagasara APMC in December, 2023, from one of the 10 seats of farmers’ constituency. With him, nine other directors of farmers’ constituency, four of traders’ constituency and the sole director of sale-purchase unions’ constituency too were elected unopposed.
“The first meeting of the new board of directors of Bagasara APMC was convened on June 28, 2024 and the agenda of the meeting was to elect chairman and vice-chairman of the board. In the election, Kanti Satasiya and Sanjay Rafaliya filed their nomination papers for the posts of chairman and vice-chairman respectively. As no other nominations were received, they were declared winners unopposed,” Bimal Patel, district registrar of cooperative societies for Amreli told The Indian Express.
Elections to cooperative bodies in Gujarat are not contested on symbols of political parties and Satasiya as well as the remaining 14 other directors were declared winners uncontested as they were the only ones to file nomination papers. Of the 10 elected directors from farmer’s constituency, six pledge political allegiance to the BJP, three to the AAP and one to Congress, Satasiya said, adding, another Congress leader was elected unopposed from the sole seat in sale-purchase unions’ constituency.
In the outgoing board of director of Bagasara APMC, cooperative leaders owing their allegiance to the BJP, enjoyed majority.
“I got the backing of all, including those elected from traders’ constituency,” Satasiya told The Indian Express, adding, “Rafaliya, who was elected unopposed from traders’ constituency, is also my supporter.”
Patel, the registrar said that all directors, including two government nominees, attended the meeting on Thursday and participated in the election process.
The seat of a representative of Bagasara municipality in the Bagasara APMC board is vacant as the BJP-ruled municipality has not been able to nominate its representative so far.
This is for the sixth time that Satasiya has been elected chairman of Bagasara APMC. “I have given my blood and sweat for making Bagasara APMC a functional farmer’s organization in the true sense of the term. When I took over in 2009, the annual revenue of Bagasara APMC was Rs 32 lakh. I oversaw it rising to Rs 1.35 crore by creating a modern APMC mandi, winning farmers’ trust and providing them an option to sell their produce locally rather than having to go to Amreli APMC or Gondal APMC which are respectively 35 km and 65 km away, Satasiya said.
Incidentally, Satasiya was arrested by the police recently after a 35-year-old woman from a village in Bagasara taluka of Amreli filed a case on May 11 this year, alleging Satasiya’s elder son Haresh raped her while Haresh’s wife Vaishali, the AAP leader, and Haresh’s younger brother Bhavin threatened her and forced her to end her engagement with a youth.
While the Gujarat High Court has granted Vaishali anticipatory bail, the father and sons were arrested. The woman later died allegedly by suicide and IPC Section 306 (abetment to suicide) was added against Satasiya and his family members for allegedly driving the woman to suicide.
However, the AAP leader moved the sessions court, seeking interim bail to participate in the election of chairman and vice-chairman of Bagasara APMC. “The court granted our plea and gave Satasiya on interim bail for a day,” Udyan Trivedi, Satasiya’s advocate said.
A day after getting elected as new chairman of Bagasara APMC, Satasiya got further relief in the criminal case as the sessions court granted him regular bail and he walked out of jail on Friday evening. “We drew the court’s attention that the allegations against Kanti Satasiya are of criminal intimidation and abetment to suicide only and that it is a fit case for bail,” Trivedi said.
“This is the first body in Gujarat that AAP has got control of,” Ajit Lokhil, AAP’s organizational secretary for Gujarat told The Indian Express, adding, “Our victory in Gujarat also busts the myth that Gujarat is a bipolar polity where no third political Party can work. AAP has established itself in Gujarat now and we have tasted success in the cooperative sector after 10-year-long efforts.”
Nikunj Savaliya, president of AAP’s Amreli district unit, said that his party has seven members in various local bodies of Amreli district. They include one representative in Amreli district panchayat, three in Dhari taluka panchayat and one each in Amreli, Rajula and Savarkundla taluka panchayats.
“But we have seized power in a body for the first time. The ruling BJP has always met out injustice to farmers and therefore, farmers and small traders supported us in Bagasara APMC,” said Savaliya.