Ahead of the Assembly polls in Maharashtra, Congress said on Wednesday that the soybean and cotton farmers have been left to fend for themselves under the Mahayuti government in the state.
Congress general secretary in-charge of Communications Jairam Ramesh pointed out that soybean is grown on an estimated five million hectares in Maharashtra, and cotton, another crop whose prices have crashed in recent years and is selling below the Minimum Support Price (MSP), is grown on another million hectares.
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Asserting that farmers of both these crops have been left to fend for themselves, he said, “The government has made grand promises to procure 1.3 million tons of soybean but has barely procured 2,000 tons so far. Cotton is typically procured on a large scale by the Cotton Corporation of India, but even that has failed to occur this year.”
“There is perhaps no constituency that the BJP has backstabbed harder than farmers. They have provided zero assistance with rising input prices. They have refused to grant legal status to MSP. Farmers therefore face a double whammy. During drought, they suffer from poor yields. When rain is abundant – like in 2024 – farmers suffer due to sudden crash in prices due to excess produce,” Ramesh said in a social media post.
He said the only solution is the one that Congress has guaranteed, nationally and at the state level: legal status to MSP, and setting of MSP as per the Swaminathan Commission’s Formula — which means at 1.5 times the comprehensive cost of cultivation.
Notably, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday stated that the farmers in Maharashtra are facing a lot of issues under the ruling dispensation.
“The BJP (alliance) government does not give fair prices to soybean and cotton farmers. After the INDIA government comes to power we will take care of you and will try to solve your problems immediately,” he said.
Elections to 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase on 20th November. The counting of votes will take place on 23rd November along with Jharkhand.
In the 2019 Assembly elections, the BJP won 105 seats, Shiv Sena bagged 56, NCP 54, and Congress 44 Assembly constituencies.
