‘Ganna, not Jinnah, will be poll issue in 2019’

LAKHIMPUR KHERI: Former union minister and senior Congress leader Jitin Prasada on Saturday said ‘ganna’ (sugarcane) and, not Jinnah, will be the real issue on the ground in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. “The people of Kairana and Nurpur discarded the divisive narratives propagated by the BJP during byelections and cast their votes on real issues of cane price and inflation,”he said.

LAKHIMPUR KHERI: Former union minister and senior Congress leader Jitin Prasada on Saturday said ‘ganna’ (sugarcane) and, not Jinnah, will be the real issue on the ground in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

While interacting with farmers in Kasta assembly area on Saturday, Prasada said, “The people of Kairana and Nurpur discarded the divisive narratives propagated by the BJP during byelections and cast their votes on real issues of cane price and inflation.”

He added, “The BJP governments in UP and at the centre have been exposed to the people owing to their anti-farmer policies.”

Prasada said, “The cane farmers, oppressed by the stray cattle menace, somehow managed to save their crops from them but the sugar units harassed them even more by not issuing timely cane slips.”

“Those who sold their cane crops to the sugar mills were forced to do the rounds for their payments amid tall claims of payment within 14 days,” he said.

Prasada said, “How apathetic was the BJP to farmers was evident from the fact that its government imported sugar from Pakistan though the country had adequate stock of the same.”

“The country will prefer to go without sugar rather to accept it from Pakistan,” he said.

Prasada said the Congress was fighting for farmers, youths, traders and weaker sections of the society.