“We are not the B-Team of either Congress or Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as being accused of by both, often. We are the team of farmers, farm workers, women, minorities and downtrodden sections of the society and our goal is to bring a qualitative change in the lives of people”, president of Bharata Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has said.
Addressing a public meeting at Sarkoli, located about 20 km away from Pandharpur in Solapur district of Maharashtra, on Tuesday he said all political parties had been betraying the farming community since Independence and it was time for transformation by joining hands of farmers and farm workers, who comprise about 60% of the electorate. “They [farmers]could dictate the fortunes of parties if stayed united and get the due benefits, which were being denied to them all these days,” the Chief Minister said.
Bhagirath Bhalke, son of a three-time MLA from Pandharpur-Mangalwedha Constituency Bharat Bhalke who died of post-COVID complications in 2020, joined BRS along with his followers and several other leaders of the areas in the presence of Mr. Rao. Mr. Bhalke lost the 2021 by-election as Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate with 3,730 votes. His father was elected MLA for three consecutive terms from 2009 representing Swabhimani Paksha, Congress and NCP, respectively.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao sought to know why the sugarcane and onion-growing farmers in the area had to suffer at the hands of middlemen and fail to get reasonable prices for their produce if the ruling parties had committed to resolving the problem all these years. “Nobody lives if a farmer dies and nobody dies if a farmer lives,” he said explaining the significant role of the farming community in society and that was the reason why BRS had taken to the ‘ab ki baar, kisan sarkar’ slogan to mobilise the community to make them a political force.
Explaining that several benefits were being extended to farmers in Telangana such as ‘lagodi’ (investment support) of ₹10,000 per acre a year, life insurance cover of ₹5 lakh irrespective of the cause of a landholding farmer’s death, 24×7 free power supply to agriculture pump-sets, water for irrigation without cess, procurement of crops among others, Mr. Rao said the ruling coalition of Maharashtra now was of the view that the State would go bankrupt if such schemes were implemented.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao pointed out that implementing such schemes was very much possible in Maharashtra with abundant resources compared to a small State such as Telangana. “Maharashtra won’t go bankrupt with such schemes but the parties would do if the people supported BRS in the next elections. Farmers will light up their lives with such schemes”, he noted.
Maharashtra unit leaders of BRS Shankaranna Dhondge, Manikrao Kadam and Bhagirath Bhalke spoke at the meeting. Earlier, Mr. Rao offered prayers at Vitthoba temple at Pandharpur.
