Hyderabad: While Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conducting a mammoth roadshow in his constituency on Thursday, about 50 farmers in Telangana hopped on to a bus from Nizamabad to file their nomination against him in Varanasi.
Chanting the slogan “Chalo Varanasi”, the farmers took the bus to reach Varanasi and file their individual papers against PM Modi, who completed his nomination formalities on Friday, in order to highlight their demand for remunerative prices for turmeric.
The last day for filing nominations from Varanasi is on April 29 as it goes to polls in the last phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections on May 19.
This follows a recent move in Telangana where 178 farmers filed their nominations and contested against CM KCR’s daughter Kavitha from Nizamabad in the ongoing Lok Sabha Polls.
However, the farmers who had contested against Kavitha denied any connection with the group planning to contest against PM Modi. Moreover, they claimed that these farmers are ruling party Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s sympathisers.
Hundreds of farmers from Nizamabad have been protesting for over five months, demanding a higher minimum support price (MSP) for turmeric and sorghum, which are widely grown in the entire region.
The latest move is an initiative by the Telangana Turmeric Farmers’ Association, which said that all the farmers would be contesting as Independent Candidates and they’ve managed to gather support from their counterparts in Varanasi. The president of the association is also said to be a TRS sympathiser.
Farmers from Nizamabad Rural, Balkonda and Armoor constituencies will be a part of this nomination process.
When the Lok Sabha elections were conducted in Telangana, Kavitha had said that the farmers should file more nominations to highlight the turmeric issue, which she has been demanding for over the past three years at least.
“My nomination is also a protest against the Centre. I urge that more farmers should come out and file nominations so that this issue gets national attention,” Kavitha had told News18 earlier.
Kavitha’s opponent and Nizamabad candidate from BJP, Arvind Kumar, has alleged that the group of farmers going to Varanasi are “mostly TRS party activists.” In fact, he has also listed out names of a few farmers who are associated with the ruling party TRS.
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