Understand farmers’ plight or face heat in polls: Sena to BJP

MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena on Friday cautioned the Bharatiya Janata Party(bjp)-led government in Maharashtra about the agrarian crisis in the state.

The BJP should understand the plight of farmers before they are voted out of power in the next elections, the Sena said.

The move comes following BJP’S loss in three Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh earlier this week.

The voting patterns suggest that the party got fewer votes from rural areas in these states.

Although the Sena shares power with the BJP in Maharashtra, the move is aimed at distancing itself from the party in case of a rural backlash in the state’s upcoming Assembly elections.

The Sena, in an editorial in Saamana, said farmers’ distress in Madhya Pradesh, which recorded the second highest farmers’ suicides in the country, has led to a change in the state government.

It is a matter of “shame” that Maharashtra leads in farmer suicides, the editorial reads.

It pointed out that in the past 11 months, Marathwada and Vidarbha registered 855 and 743 farmer’s suicides, respectively.

The editorial reads, “As per government data, over 11,000 farmers have committed suicide in the last four years. The farmers of the state feel cheated regarding the farm loan waiver. It is still not too late.”

“At least now understand the indignation of the farmers, or else the farmer who is putting a noose around his neck today can put the same noose around the government tomorrow. The latest election results show that,” it said.

Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had earlier directed party leaders to start drought relief work in affected areas.