india

Updated: Apr 25, 2019 20:14 IST

A group of 50 farmers cultivating turmeric in Telangana’s Nizamabad district on Thursday left for Uttar Pradesh to contest the ongoing Lok Sabha elections from the Varanasi parliamentary constituency as independents to highlight their demand for constitution of a turmeric board to ensure remunerative prices for their crop.

Varanasi is being represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is contesting from the same seat for a second term. The Congress announced the candidature of Ajay Rai for the seat, ending speculations over the candidature of party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi.

The farmers belonging to Armoor, Balkonda and Nizamabad (rural) areas left for Nagpur in Maharashtra by a private bus and from Nagpur, they would be travelling up to Varanasi by train. They will be joined by another 50 turmeric farmers from Erode in Tamil Nadu, who would also file their nominations in Varanasi. The holy town is going to polls on May 19.

“We have chosen Varanasi obviously because the Prime Minister is contesting from there. Our intention is to draw nation-wide attention to the problems of turmeric farmers. We don’t want to campaign against Modi or any other candidate. We shall make an appeal to the people to support our legitimate demand,” Nizamabad district turmeric farmers’ association president P Tirupati Reddy, one of the contestants in Varanasi, said.

Another contestant, Mittapalli Ganga Reddy, said the turmeric farmers had been agitating for the last 12 years, seeking formation of a turmeric board and remunerative prices for the crop.

Telangana turmeric farmers’ association president, Kotapati Narasimham Naidu, who is the brain behind the idea of the Nizamabad farmers’ plan to contest from Varanasi, said they would file their papers on April 29, the last day for filing of nominations.

“Arrangements are being made to mobilise the signatures of local farmers as proposers for the Nizamabad farmers to contest the elections. We have also managed to collect money towards election deposit,” he said.

Apparently, the farmers have drawn inspiration from the April 11 elections to Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat for which 178 farmers contested to highlight their demand for remunerative prices for their turmeric and red jowar crops. Nizamabad parliamentary constituency is represented by Kalvakuntla Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.