Political harvest: Promises galore, but what is the mood in the fields?

The second and concluding part of the MSP series looks at farmer sentiment in poll-bound states

The track to ballot boxes runs through fields. And political parties know if they are to win the race to those boxes, they need the owners of those fields on their side.

“The parties, it seems, have figured out that farmers are going to be the kingmakers this time,” quips Suder Baxla, a farm leader from Narayanpur, a district in Chhattisgarh.

Baxla’s state is among the five that are in election season. These are all states where a significant percentage of households are directly reliant on agriculture: Rajasthan (63.3 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (57.7 per cent), Telangana (47.3 per cent),