BJP to try again to reach out to farmers

Mumbai: After its “Shivar Samwad Yatra” failed to create a buzz among farmers and the subsequent, violent farmers’ stir damaged its prospects in rural Maharashtra, the BJP has now decided to reach out to farmers once again with all its state cabinet ministers and senior leaders.

The decision was taken at a late night meeting of all ministers at “Varsha”, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ official residence on Tuesday. The decision shot down murmurs within the party about mishandling of the farmers’ strike by leadership.

With the farmers’ strike intensifying day by day, the CM had reportedly asked his ministers for their opinions on the crisis. Party sources said, “All expressed the need to reach out to the public again, especially to the farming community in rural Maharashtra. The state leadership has decided to give responsibility to every minister district-wise so that the party can handle the crisis in an organised manner.”

Now, guardian ministers will reach out to farmer leaders in their districts and try to put the government’s side before them. Sources also said that ministers and senior leaders will be assigned the task of communicating to sections including farming experts, activists and active sympathisers of the movement. These leaders will convey the work done by the Centre and the state for the agricultural sector in the past three years.

BJP had organised the Yatra between May 25 and 28 for a similar reason. The plan was to reach out to 40,000 villages. On paper, the party completed the yatra, however, it failed to create the required buzz on ground. However, finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar refused to accept that the yatra was a failure.