Karnataka polls: Farm distress may turn out to be a sore point for BJP

The best option to reduce farm distress in the state is that when the rains fail, the state - the central and the state government - provide a financial cushion for the farmer

“The more Modiji talks about the things his government has done for farmers, the more the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) will lose here,” says Vikas Soppin, an engineer, with a degree in marketing, who is now a farmer activist. 

He was referring to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at Gadag two days ago where Modi said the Congress had paid only lip service to farmers. “It is better that nobody from the BJP speaks about the famed ‘fasal beema yojana’ because we know exactly what the yojana has achieved.” 

To say that farmers in North Karnataka are facing a crisis is