Uddhav Thackeray to meet farmers in Vidarbha

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena is going to kick off the second phase of its ‘Shiv Sampark Abhiyan’ from Vidarbha on May 14. The region became stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after it wrested it away from the Congress in aftermath of the Lok Sabha and state Assembly polls in 2014. However, the Sena leadership wants to make inroads into this BJP bastion by raising farmers’ issues.

Farmer suicides have remained one of the major issues of the region, especially in Yavatmal district, party sources said.

The Shiv Sena had started the movement last week to connect with farmers in the state’s Marathwada region where cases of farmers’ suicides have been increasing. In the second phase, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray himself will visit Vidarbha on May 14 and 15 to take a stock of the situation, a party leader said.

The Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had recently concluded a similar campaign to turn farmers against the BJP-led government. The campaign received a good response in its later stage. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis too had ordered his workers to go among the people and take stock of their problems.

Taking a cue from the Opposition and the BJP, the Sena has decided to reach out to farmers and win their trust by championing their cause.  from May 14