In areas in and around Nizamabad town, situated in north Telangana, the farmers community is financially and politically strong. Most of the local farmers cultivate turmeric and sorghum. Aggressive and united, the farmers seem to be a divided a lot due to the elections.
A debate is raging on about who is a genuine farmer and who is acting at the behest of political parties. The local WhatsApp groups have been filled with political posts and messages criticising leaders. The sudden change occurred due to the elections.
The farmers have been agitating for a Turmeric Board for a long time along with a better Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their yield. During the first phase of general elections, around 175 farmers from this region of Telangana filed their nomination to highlight their demand. The daughter of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, K. Kavitha, is a sitting MP from Nizamabad constituency. The farmers stuck to their stand and withstood the pressure of local ruling party leaders to refrain from withdrawing their candidature. At that time, the TRS party leaders accused the BJP of propping up the farmers. Just before the election day, most of the farmers who filed their nominations extended support to the BJP candidate, D. Aravind, after he gave a written assurance that he would strive to fulfil their demands. The result was that the Election Commission had to use 12 additional EVMs per booth to accommodate all the candidates names and symbols. In a way, this move gave jitters to the ruling party.
The ruling TRS seems to have been hurt with the rebellion allegedly orchestrated by the BJP in their territory. Now that the elections in Telangana are over, the TRS seem to be in a tit-for-tat mode. Around 45 farmers from Nizamabad parliament constituency will file their nominations on Saturday for Varanasi seat, from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is contesting. It has been learnt that the farmers are close to the TRS leaders and they are contesting for party’s sake. None of the farmers who had contested for Nizamabad parliament are contesting from Varanasi which has made it clear that the local community is polarised on the basis of political ideologies.
Tirupathi Reddy is one among the 45 members contesting against Modi. While on his way to Varanasi, he said that their only demand was Turmeric Board.
“No, we do not belong to any party. In fact, those who are calling us as the supporters of TRS are the ones supporting other political parties,” said Reddy dismissing that he is part of a politically motivated move. “All we want is a better MSP for our crop. We are not against Modi but we want to be heard.”
Now, these farmers have not decided whether they want to campaign or lie low after filing their nominations. “We will decide our future course of action in a couple of days,” he said.
Varanasi will go to polls on May 19 in the final phase of the 2019 general elections.