Tue Nov 19 16:36:06 UTC 2024: ## Maharashtra Election Enters Final Stretch: Farmers’ Concerns Take Center Stage

**Mumbai, November 19, 2024** – With Maharashtra’s state assembly elections just two weeks away, the political landscape has dramatically shifted. Initial campaigning focused heavily on the ruling Mahayuti’s flagship women’s aid scheme, the Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, and the contentious Maratha reservation issue. However, the urgent concerns of the state’s farmers have finally emerged as a dominant theme, forcing a change in the narrative from all major parties.

The ruling coalition, initially confident in the popularity of the Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana (which provides ₹1,500 per month to eligible women), faced pressure after the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) launched counter-attacks focusing on rising prices and unemployment. Both coalitions engaged in personality-driven campaigning, using caricatures and mocking advertisements.

Manifestos from both sides promised increased welfare schemes. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Mahayuti increased the Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana allowance to ₹2,100, promised loan waivers for farmers, and subsidized minimum support prices (MSPs). The MVA also offered a range of welfare measures, with Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) promising free education for male students and the scrapping of the Dharavi redevelopment project. All three major MVA parties pledged to remove the 50% cap on reservations.

While initial campaigning employed emotional and religious appeals, including the BJP’s “Batoge to Katoge” (You will speak, then you will be cut) slogan, the issue of farmers’ distress, particularly concerning soybean and cotton farmers, only recently gained traction. This followed a Kisan Manifesto highlighting the plight of these farmers, urging political parties to address their concerns.

Responding to the farmers’ unrest, parties are now scrambling to offer solutions. The Congress initially announced an MSP of ₹7,000 per quintal and a bonus for soybean, prompting similar announcements from the BJP. Uddhav Thackeray urged farmers to hold onto their produce for a better price from the new government.

Analysts attribute this late focus on farmers’ issues to the realization that agrarian concerns cannot be ignored, even though farmers aren’t a monolithic voting bloc. The issue has forced a shift away from the previously dominant Hindutva agenda. P. Sainath, a key drafter of the Kisan Manifesto, expressed satisfaction that the farmers’ concerns have finally been brought to the forefront of the election campaign.

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