Why Rahul Gandhi may have chosen Mandsaur to launch Congress' MP Campaign

It is believed that all senior Congress leaders from the state will attend the event, where the party might announce its plans to improve farmers' conditions if it were to come to power in the state

Congress President Rahul Gandhi will launch his party's campaign for the coming Madhya Pradesh Assembly election in Mandsaur on Wednesday. The day marks the first death anniversary of five farmers who were brutally killed in police firing here on June 6 last year. According to reports, the rally will be attended by around 200,000 farmers. It is believed that all senior Congress leaders from the state will attend the event, where the party is widely expected to announce its plans to improve farmers' conditions if it were to come to power in the state.

Mandsaur assumes importance because it was here that farmers' protests boiled over resulting in the deaths, and continued for days, with rioting farmers torching vehicles and holding chakka-jams, throwing the state's administrative machinery out of gear.

Mandsaur, however, is only one of the many instances of farmer unrest witnessed in the country over the past year.

In February this year, farmers in Rajasthan held massive protests demanding complete loan waivers, as against the waiver of debts up to Rs 50,000 promised by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.

In March, some 25,000 farmers marched 180 km from Nashik's CBS Chowk to Mumbai's Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha. The march came after protesting farmers said that the Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra had failed to honour its promises on loan waivers.

This was followed by farmer protests in Uttar Pradesh over pending sugarcane dues and the death of a farmer who had been on a hunger strike for about a week in Baraut.

Meanwhile, just days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered an electoral defeat in the sugarcane-belt of western Uttar Pradesh, the government is expected to announce a fresh package of Rs 80 billion to bail out the sugar sector. This is expected to be in addition to the financial assistance of Rs 5.50 per quintal of sugarcane announced a few weeks ago.