Grass not greener on any side, farmers may opt for NOTA

With all parties wooing them, how will farmers in Karnataka, who are suffering due to drought, vote in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections?

Various farmers leaders under the aegis of Indian Sugarcane farmers Association (ISFA) are slated to meet on April 3 in Mysuru to chalk out voting strategies. 

The Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) and Hasiru Sene, led by Chamarasa Malipatil, have kickstarted a campaign to organise farmers in the state to vote against NDA candidates. 

Farmers are one of the biggest chunks of voters, but are divided into multiple caste groups. Thus, their votes get scattered among powerful candidates or parties.

As a result, ISFA, for the first time, is making efforts to bring farmers on a single platform. 

ISFA president Kurubur Shanthakumar told DH that though some time ago, farmers’ unions had argued for a nationwide boycott of elections, it was opposed by some of the associations, saying boycotting elections was not a solution.

Instead, there is a strong demand among farmers’ unions that farmers need to opt for NOTA in large numbers. 

Malipatil, also state president of Sarvodaya Party, told DH that KRRS was part of ‘Samyukta Kisan Morcha,’ which has already commenced its agitation against the Modi government, ‘which has been working against farmers’ interests’ in the last 10 years.

“We are planning to hold village, taluk and district-level rallies from this week to highlight how NDA’s farm policies are detrimental to farmers. This does not mean that we are completely in favour of Congress. But Congress’ five guarantees have brought some respite to people in places where drought is severe,” he said.           

Karnataka Kisan Congress president Sachin Meega told DH that they were set to launch a hamlet-level outreach programme this weekend to woo farmers.  “We are going to discuss more about how the guarantees have helped them improve their livelihood, while educating them about how the Modi government failed to double farmers’ income,” he said.

Karnataka BJP Raitha Morcha president A S Patil (Nadahalli) said the BJP would go all guns blazing over the release of water from River Cauvery to Tamil Nadu by the Congress government and stopping of several schemes for farmers launched by previous BJP governments. 

“There were hordes of welfare programmes like Raitha Vidya Nidhi launched by BJP in the state. But they were suddenly stopped by the Congress government,” Patil said and added that the party had launched booth-level programme to reach out to farmers.