Maharashtra Assembly elections: Four farmer suicides in 20 years, but no farm exemption in Maharashtra for 10 years, says CPI (M) leader

All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) National President Ashok Dhawale | Photo credit: U. Subramanyam

Farmers are at the center of this election just as they were in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and that is the main reason why the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faced a drubbing, says All India Kisan president Mahasabha and leader of the CPI (M). , Ashok Dhawale at The Hindu Poll Arena on Wednesday (November 6, 2024) in Mumbai.

Maharashtra ‘Poll arena’ | Coverage of The Hindus election conclave

“The anger of onion, soyabean, cotton, sugarcane and dairy farmers has spread across Maharashtra. In recent years, Maharashtra has witnessed a very big tragedy: it is the number one state in India for the highest number of farmer suicides, and that is not something to be proud of. It’s time for them to hang their heads in shame. From 20 to 22 years, the state has seen at least 4 lakh farmers commit suicide,” Dhawale said.

There was a time when soyabeans were sold at ₹11,000 per quintal in Maharashtra, but when the BJP government started importing soyabeans, soyabeans were sold at just ₹4,000 per quintal, he said. “Then the central government had fixed the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for soybeans at ₹4,892 per quintal, which means that today the soybean farmer is losing ₹4,000 per quintal. Similarly, the MSP for cotton is between ₹7,100 and ₹7,500 per quintal. The cotton farmers earn less than ₹6,000 per quintal. Similarly, the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) for sugarcane or the dairy industry is not even close to their profitable price. Maharashtra’s dairy farmers are in lakhs. Earlier, dairy farmers used to earn ₹34 per litre, now it is just ₹24 per litre. Conditions for onion growers have deteriorated since the ban on onion exports in Maharashtra. This government allowed the export of onions from Gujarat. The condition of tomatoes is the same,” said Mr Dhawale.

These are some of the important reasons why despite all the popular schemes introduced by the Mahayuti government and desperately trying to sell them in the state, people are aware of the core problems, he said.

“The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra is following the same diktats of the central government. When natural disasters occur, farmers do not even get benefits from the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. Big Mahyuti leaders are responsible for the irrigation fraud worth ₹7,000 crore in Maharashtra,” he alleged.