Ajit Pawar & his MLAs to raise farmers' issues with PM Modi

NASHIK: A section of the NCP MLAs who attended the Thursday's meeting with the party chief, Ajit Pawar, expressed 'anguish' over the Union govt's failure to roll back the ban on onion exports before the Lok Sabha election, which sent a wrong message among the farming community in the state.

Ajit Pawar had called the meeting of the party MLAs to take stock of his party's poor performance in the recently concluded general election, wherein the NCP managed to win only one of the four seats it contested.

Some of the MLAs present in the meeting told TOI that they felt that Centre's failure to lift the ban on onion exports before the election "sent a wrong message to the onion growers", who constitute a sizeable chunk of voters in constituencies like Dindori, Dhule, Sinnar and Ahmednagar.

"We told Ajit Dada that many of the NCP MLAs hail from the rural areas where votes from the farming community are extremely important. During our campaign for the Mahayuti candidates in the Lok Sabha polls, we were asked by the farmers on the onion export ban issue. We failed to provide them with proper answers," NCP's Sinnar MLA Manikrao Kokate said.

Union minister Bharati Pawar lost the Dindori seat to NCP (SCP) nominee Bhaskar Bhagare because of the growing anger among the onion farmers. The Dindori constituency is considered to be the onion bowl of India.

What has sent alarm bells ringing in the corridors of power in the state is the voting trend in the Nashik and Dindori Lok Sabha constituencies. In these two constituencies, Mahayuti candidates were behind the MVA nominees in their respective assembly segments. Apart from the onion ban issue, the party MLAs pointed at the growing distress among the cotton and soyabean farmers in the state, who were receiving low price for their yield, affecting them financially.

"It was decided in the Thursday meeting that after Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes oath for his third term, an NCP delegation led by Ajit Dada would meet him and other Union ministers requesting greater focus on farmers' issues. The focus will be on measures to overcome the problems in Maharashtra," Kokate said. According to the NCP MLAs, the Union govt must play a proactive role in reducing the distress among the farmers in Maharashtra ahead of the assembly polls. "The NCP will put pressure on Centre to roll back the ban on onion exports and solve the other issues plaguing the farmers in Maharashtra," Kokate added.


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