RLD, SP look to cash in on farmers’ unrest over sugarcane price

MEERUT: Unrest among farmers over insufficient hike in support price of sugarcane has given BJP’s rival parties an opportunity to revive their lost base in the rural areas of the region.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which has a base among farmers and rural areas, is using this opportunity to convince farmers that the saffron party is “anti farmers and always thinks about the benefit of mills and corporates.” The RLD and the Samajwadi Party couldn’t do well in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and assembly elections in 2017. The RLD is considered a party with a strong vote base of Jatavs and Muslims in western UP, but this winning equation was broken after the Muzaffarnagar riots, which led to the defeat of party leader Ajit Singh and his son Jayant Choudhary in LS elections.

The party somehow managed to register victory only on Chaprauli seat in the assembly election. The voters largely supported the Hindutva agenda of BJP and they were also hopeful of ‘achhe din’ under the BJP rule.

Western UP is a sugarcane belt and therefore issues related to farmers have political and social impact. A mere increase of Rs 10 in previous year’s support price of cane has disappointed farmers who have been burning their cane crop in protest and aligning with organisations like BKU and RLD to launch a movement against the state government’s alleged apathetic attitude towards farmers.

Currently, the state advised price (SAP) of normal variety cane is Rs 315/quintal while early variety is priced at Rs 325/quintal. RLD’s senior leader Rajkumar Sangwan made no bones in admitting that the issue has given them an opportunity to convince farmers that BJP is an anti-farmer party .