Polling concluded peacefully for the much-hyped elections to the Mysuru District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Societies’ Union Ltd (MYMUL) here on Tuesday.
Though the polls were not held on party lines, the elections to the co-operative body were a proxy war between former Ministers G.T. Deve Gowda and S.R. Mahesh, both JD(S) MLAs, whose followers were in the race for the posts of 15 directors of MYMUL.
Former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy too had campaigned for candidates supported by Mr. Mahesh. Mr. Gowda has been maintaining a distance from the JD(S) leadership.
While 7 directors were to be elected from Mysuru Sub Division, the remaining 8 were from Hunsur Sub Division. While 11 of the 15 directors’ posts were for general category, 4 were reserved for women. The electoral college comprises more than 1,050 voters and the polling was held at Karnataka Milk Federation’s (KMF) Training Centre at the Mega Dairy premises at Alanahalli on Bannur Road between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Eligible voters were seen arriving from different parts of the district in groups in mini buses and other vehicles to choose from the total of 29 candidates.
Mr. Gowda’s son G.D. Harish Gowda, who is also the president of Mysuru and Chamarajanagar District Co-operative Central Bank, visited the venue. Except for minor verbal spats, the polling process passed off smoothly.
The run-up to the elections saw Mr. Kumaraswamy campaigning in favour of the candidates supported by Mr. Mahesh by arguing that Mr. Gowda was trying to ‘end’ the JD(S) in Mysuru district. The former CM also vowed to never allow Mr. Gowda to return to the party fold as long as he was at the helm of affairs of JD(S). He claimed that it was necessary to defeat the candidates supporting Mr. Gowda to prevent corruption in MYMUL.
Mr. Gowda, meanwhile, said he had never quit the JD(S) and accused Mr. Kumaraswamy of acting at the behest of Mr. Mahesh.
