50 Telangana farmers to fight in Varanasi

Nizamabad: In a surprise move, around 50 turmeric farmers from Nizamabad district will contest the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, whose star contestant is none Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The 50 farmers will travel to the north Indian city to file their nominations prior to April 29, the last date for filing nomination papers.

The farmers are from Nizamabad Rural, Armoor and Balkonda Assembly constituencies, and they are standing for election, they say, to draw the attention of the country to the fall in the price of turmeric, which has affected them badly.

About 180 farmers contested the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat on April 11 to protest the falling prices.

Representatives of the Telangana Turmeric Farmers’ Association criticised the BJP and the Congress for ignoring the farmers in the recent Lok Sabha election in Nizamabad. They said the mass nominations were meant as a protest against Ms K. Kavitha, the TRS MP and daughter of Chief Minister K. Chandrase-khar Rao. They said they were going to contest in Varanasi because though Ms Kavitha had tried to set up a Turmeric Board in Nizamabad district where the crop is widely grown, the NDA government at the Centre had ignored their demand.

“To highlight the plight of farmers, we have decided to contest from Varanasi too,” one of them said.

Some turmeric farmers from Erode in Tamil Nadu  will also join them in Varanasi, the farmers said.

The farmers said their campaign will not be against anyone in Varanasi. “We want to highlight the problems of farmers at national level,” they all said. Interestingly, Ms Kavitha had asked the farmers to file mass nominations in Varanasi and also in Amethi.