Jumbo EVM ride in Nizamabad as farmers take on political bigwigs

Kottampally Srinivas, a turmeric and red jowar farmer in Telangana's Armur village, stands with arms akimbo amid a crowd that has gathered at a public rally here but doesn't sound optimistic.

"No political party is concerned about agricultural issues," he says.

Sitting Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MP K Kavitha is to address the rally at Metpally village in Maknoor mandal and Srinivas struggles to have a glimpse of her as she steps out of the car.

Few months before the assembly polls in December 2018, the TRS government had procured red jowar at Rs 2,300 per quintal. However, after coming to power, it stopped the procurement, Srinivas rues.

Now as the polling date nears, the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency is in spotlight as it has the highest number of candidates -- 185 -- contesting, 179 of them being distressed farmers who have kept political parties on tenterhooks and the Election Commission (EC) on its toes to arrange for jumbo EVMs.

These farmers are fighting the elections as independents so as to send a message across to political parties about their plight.

Their only demand is that the Centre or the state government should fix a minimum support price (MSP) for both turmeric and red jowar (sorghum), rates for which have declined sharply due to the supply and demand mismatch. MSP is fixed by the Centre only for 25 crops in the country.

At the rally, Kavitha asserts that she has not kept quiet on the matter and highlights the efforts made to convince the Centre to set up a turmeric board and even move a private member bill in this regard.

"The demand for setting up of a turmeric board is not new but the BJP-led central government has not approved it. Now both the BJP and the Congress are provoking farmers against the TRS in the elections," she says, as she promises to boost value-addition to turmeric crop if re-elected.

Another farmer Kota Venkatesh, visibly upset after hearing yet another promise, says, "All political parties make fleeting reference to farmers in their election manifesto. The BJP and the Congress too have made the similar ones."