THE LEADERS

As farmers reached Mumbai after a six-day march from Nashik to protest for their demands and for a meeting with CM Devendra Fadnavis and other ministers, here’s a look at three key farmer leaders:

ASHOK DHAWALE President, Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha (ABKS)

Dhawale, who was recently elected to lead ABKS, the peasants’ body represented by undivided communist parties, is a staunch follower of social activist Godavari Parulekar. Dhawale has been an active social worker in Thane and Palghar districts since 1993 and has been fighting for various agricultural issues, including the implementation of the Forest Rights Act and the recommendations made by Swaminathan Commission. He has also opposed land acquisition for the Special Economic Zone in Raigad about a decade ago, and is now protesting the acquisition of land for the bullet train and MumbaiNagpur Expressway projects

JIVA PANDU GAVIT CPI (M) leader and Kalwan MLA

Seven-time MLA from Kalwan in Nashik, Jiva Pandu Gavit is a CPI(M) leader and the only legislator to represent leftist parties in Maharashtra’s Legislative Assembly. Gavit, who is from the tribal community, prefers to keep a low profile and is the brain behind the Long March. He is also the main reason so many tribals have joined in the agitation — they are fighting for the implementation of the Forest Rights Act,2006, that promised them repossession of land that they had been tilling for generations and had been taken over by the forest department

AJIT NAWALE State secretary, ABKS

In June 2017, Nawale was the driving force behind the farmers’ agitation that eventually led the chief minister to announce a farm loan waiver scheme. Then, farmers had sought complete loan waiver and an assured minimum support price for crops that is 1.5 times the cost of production, besides implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report. The farmers had threatened to go on strike. After negotiations, Nawale was made a member of the government-formed steering committee, to chalk out the structure for the loan waiver. He was, however, not convinced with the framework of the scheme and since then has been directing protests at district and taluka levels