One hundred and seventy five turmeric farmers who are contesting the Lok Sabha elections from the Nizamabad constituency held a joint rally. The farmers decided to contest the elections as a mark of protest against the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)
Hyderabad: The farmers, who are in the election fray in the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency, held a joint poll rally to call upon the farming community. They told the farmers to reject any party that is not accepting their long-pending demands.
All the 175 farmers, who are contesting, came together and slammed the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government for not keeping up with the promises made to the farmers.
Turmeric and red sorghum growers sought Minimum Support Price of (MSP) of Rs 12,000 per quintal for turmeric and Rs 3,500 for red sorghum.
The meeting demanded immediate steps to set up a turmeric board in Nizamabad, which accounts for the bulk of turmeric production in the country.
They also demanded reopening of two sugar factories in Nizamabad, implementation of Swaminathan Committee recommendations and withdrawal of cases booked against farmers.
A total of 185 candidates are contesting from the Nizamabad constituency. Telangana chief minister and TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao's daughter K Kavitha is seeking re-election from the constituency.
The Congress has again fielded its all India secretary and two-time MP Madhu Yaskhi Goud while D Arvind is contesting on a BJP ticket.
The constituency has a little over 15.53 lakh voters including 3.73 lakh farmers.
The Election Commission has already decided to use Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for conducting the polling. The constituency is set to create a record as 12 EVMs will be used in each polling station.
Some of the contesting farmers had approached the Telangana high court, seeking postponement of polls on the ground that they were yet to get the election symbols and they needed time to popularise them among voters.
The high court on Monday refused to postpone the election but agreed to hear the farmers' plea to declare the action of the Election Commission in not allotting symbols in time as illegal. The court adjourned the hearing by two weeks.
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