A day after the board of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which promotes India’s largest FMCG brand Amul, hastily accepted MD R S Sodhi’s resignation, changes have proceeded at the GCMMF headquarters in Anand.
GCMMF Chairman Shamal Patel visited the federation’s office on Tuesday and gave orders to fire two of Sodhi’s personal aides.
The two were replaced by two additional workers who will act as Jayen Mehta’s (COO of GCMMF), who was appointed in-charge MD with immediate effect by the board on Monday, personal assistants. Sources said that while one of the personnel was already assisting Mehta as COO, the in-charge MD has been given another person to assist him.
Gujarat’s milk unions and the nation’s dairy industry as a whole are keeping a close eye on what happens at GCMMF headquarters in the wake of Sodhi’s departure. Interestingly, the board members who demanded Sodhi’s resignation, according to sources in the federation, gave the GCMMF chairman the responsibility of briefing the media on the proceedings.
Shamal Patel remained incommunicado on Tuesday as well. “When we had met at AmulFed, Gandhinagar, we had decided that the chairman will make the public announcement regarding the decision taken by the board,” a board member said on Tuesday.
Even as rumours about the reasons for Sodhi’s departure persisted, as of Tuesday night, neither GCMMF nor any of the board members had made any public announcements or statements. According to other sources, the chairman of a well-known member milk union was instrumental in persuading the other board members and obtaining the support of the BJP’s high brass for Sodhi’s resignation.
Only 10 of the 18 chiefs of milk unions who serve on the federation’s board were able to sign the resolution that was adopted at the conference in Gandhinagar. The meeting’s announcement to some board members over the phone came without any mention of the agenda.
Even though Sodhi has insisted that he asked the board members for permission to resign because he had been on an extension for the previous two years, rumours about Sodhi’s departure spread due to the letter’s tone.
“Hence, it is ordered that you hereby relinquish the charge of MD with immediate effect and handover the charge to COO Jayen Mehta,” the letter reads.
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