Overview
- The Maharashtra cabinet on November 4 approved an ordinance to allow five state‑nominated members, four with voting rights, on the managing committees of very large cooperatives including Gokul Dairy.
- That change could alter the current 13–12 board split at Gokul and affect a fresh chairman election the Bombay High Court ordered for November 10.
- Opposition leaders called the move a post‑election attempt to seize control and Rahul Gandhi described it as theft of milk producers’ votes, while ministers defended the step as a legal fix to a quorum deadlock and said they had the Advocate General’s view.
- The opposition has announced street protests in Kolhapur on November 9 and plans legal challenges against the ordinance, setting up simultaneous courtroom and street-level battles ahead of the November 10 hearing.
- Gokul is one of India’s largest dairy cooperatives, supplying daily payments to hundreds of thousands of producers, so control of its board carries direct economic impact for about 5.5 lakh farmers and broader political influence across multiple assembly and Lok Sabha seats, and legal experts have warned targeted voting‑right nominations may face court scrutiny.