Radha Mohan Singh has been kept out of the list of BJP star campaigners over apprehensions that the agriculture minister could face protests from farmers.
New Delhi: The agrarian distress has emerged to be a prominent issue in the ongoing assembly elections, but Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh is conspicuously absent from the list of star campaigners for poll-bound states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Both the states have seen farmer protests against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled state governments in recent years.
For the party that claims to have taken historic steps in bettering the lives of the farmers of the country, many believe Singh could have been the best bet to be fielded as the prime campaigner to seek votes from the agrarian community.
“We believe that we have been better in agriculture compared to previous government. To encash that, we should have fielded him (Singh) in Rajasthan where he could have interacted with farmers face to face and convinced them of our good intent,” a senior party leader said.
Singh, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) man and former Bihar state president, had been a star campaigner for the party in Bihar, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Delhi and Maharashtra assembly elections.
The BJP, however, has reportedly decided to keep him out of the campaigners list lest he could face serious protests, which may not be good optics at a time when the party is already battling anti-incumbency in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Madhya Pradesh goes to polls on 28 November while Rajasthan will vote on 7 December. Chhattisgarh has already voted in a two-phase election.
The elections results will be announced on 11 December.
Also read: Shivraj Chouhan’s Madhya Pradesh shows the more the Indian farmer grows, the angrier he is
Protests in states
In Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur, farmers’ protests grabbed national attention last year as they turned violent after the police opened firing.
To abate the anger, the state government was forced to announce several measures for farmers. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced a bonus of Rs 200 per quintal over and above the minimum support price (MSP) of wheat and paddy, and also promised to waive interest on farm loans.
Ironically, Madhya Pradesh has registered the highest agricultural growth among Indian states for a decade now. Over the last five years, it has a seen an annual growth of 14 per cent.
In Rajasthan, the Vasundhara Raje government waived up to Rs 50,000 of all short-term crop loans of small and marginal farmers this year.
With images of the farmers protest in BJP-ruled Maharashtra still fresh, the party moved swiftly to accept all their demands to pacify them ahead of assembly polls.
Demanding better MSP for their produce and waiver on loans, farmers across the country have held the protests in Delhi and Mumbai in recent years.
Earlier this year, Singh made a controversial comment that only a handful of farmers organisations stage protests as they need to be in news to stay relevant.
Also read: BJP is on a better wicket in parliamentary elections than in state elections
Demonetisation report
Last week, the Agriculture Ministry reportedly submitted to the Parliament Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance that the November 2016 exercise of demonetisation harmed the agriculture sector as millions of farmers were not able to buy fertilisers and seeds.
Singh, however, denied the reports and said demonetisation didn’t harm the sector.
Certain media channels and newspapers have been running a story that the agriculture ministry has accepted that farmers have been adversely affected by demonetisation and were unable to purchase seeds due to unavailability of cash. This is far from truth. The truth is this: pic.twitter.com/UPsnfbBX0D
— Radha Mohan Singh (@RadhamohanBJP) November 21, 2018
BJP leaders objected too and said that farmers were allowed to use old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 and arrangements were made for them so that they wouldn’t face issues.
BJP defence of move
A senior BJP leader associated with the process of finalising campaigners for the party rubbished claims that Singh was not fielded because of the fear that the minister could face protests.
The leader said that the list is drawn looking at the mass appeal of the campaigners and demand by the state.
“We get demand from states and candidates and finalise the leaders on basis of that. We also look at the appeal of the leader as crowd puller,” said the leader.
“He had been star campaigner in Bihar and Jharkhand — a region where he is accepted widely,” added the leader.
A close aide of Singh confirmed that he hasn’t been going out as star campaigner in poll bound states but had spent days in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Bihar during assembly polls.
From a farmer’s point of view, demonetisation could not have been worse timed.The Kharif crop to be sold, the Rabi crop to be sown. With no income tax on agricultural income, the extensive use of cash does not represent any form of wrong doing. In reports coming in for these state elections, demonetisation is a hurt that still rankles.