Hyderabad: Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was likely to see a replay of the Nizamabad seat contest in Telangana.
Turmeric-growing farmers from Nizamabad were planning to carry out a “surgical strike” on Varanasi by entering the electoral fray against Modi in large numbers, just like they did in Nizamabad as a novel protest to highlight their problems and sufferings.
The farmers’ community created a record of sorts and posed a major challenge to all the political parties by fielding as many as 179 independent candidates in Nizamabad constituency in Telangana from where Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha was seeking a second term on the ticket of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti.
A meeting of turmeric farmers in Nizamabad on Tuesday decided that at least 50 of them will contest from Varanasi against the Prime Minister to draw national attention to their demands. Their main demand was setting up turmeric board to ensure remunerative price for their produce.
“Only purpose is to ensure we get justice. BJP government did nothing over the last five years despite promising to solve our problems”, said Daivashi Gamini, president of Turmeric Farmers Association.
A group of farmers from the villages around Nizamabad and Armoor towns were leaving for Varanasi where they will file nominations as independent candidates. “But we will not campaign against any other candidate”, Daivashi Gamini said.
Some farmers from Tamil Nadu were also likely to join them in Varanasi, he said adding that more farmers should also come from other parts of the country.
The farmers regretted that in Nizamabad their decision of mass contesting was exploited by the BJP and the Congress against TRS’ candidate Kavitha. “She fought for the turmeric board for the last five years but the Centre did nothing”, he said.
The presence of 185 candidates in Nizamabad had posed serious challenges to the Election Commission in matter of making arrangements as the authorities were forced to deploy 12 ballot units in each booth to accommodate all the candidates’ names and symbols.
