The western Maharashtra region has traditionally been a source of political and economic strength for the Congress party and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The region is also where the operations that support Gokul, the cooperative society at the heart of a controversial electoral outcome, are located. Gokul, which has a turnover of over Rs 4,100 crore annually, is now slipping into the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Its management is in the hands of a board where the Mahayuti-led candidates dominate. But what is the endgame here? Journalist Kunal Purohit weighs into why the dairying cooperative should matter to consumers just as much as it does to the parties that seek to control it.