Telangana turmeric farmers complain to EC over Varanasi nomination

A representative group of Telangana turmeric farmers met the Deputy Election Commissioner, Chandra Bhushan Kumar, in New Delhi on Monday to register a complaint about the difficulties they faced in filing nominations in Varanasi.

"54 of us went to Varanasi to file our nominations. The Varanasi police tortured and harassed us. We were able to submit only 25 nominations out of which 24 were rejected by the Election Commission. They were under pressure of unknown forces. We do not understand why this happened," said a representative.

"Immediate action was assured by the EC," he added.

The group of 54 farmers from Nizamabad had arrived in Varanasi on April 28 to file their nomination as independent candidates to contest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

"We are not opposing anyone. We just want to highlight our problems and demand creation of a turmeric board and Minimum Support Price of Rs 15000 per quintal (MSP) for turmeric," a spokesperson for the farmers had told ANI in Varanasi.

Turmeric farmers across the country are facing hardships due to famine conditions and lack of MSP for the last three to four years. This year, turmeric prices have fallen to Rs 3,200 per quintal from Rs 5,200.

Varanasi goes to poll on May 19 in the last phase of elections. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.