Mandsaur becomes political battlefield as Rahul blows election bugle

A year after five farmers were killed in police firing in Pipliyamandi in the district, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday launched his party’s campaign for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, slated for November, by promising that his party would write off farm loans within 10 days of forming a government in Bhopal.

The Congress rally was well attended. The kin of some of the farmers also turned up. But a year after the incident, Mandsaur is perceptibly calm.

In urban areas, people are a bit weary of the political battlefield that their district has turned into. They say the