Beyond sympathy wave: Thackeray faction bats for farmers

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) has decided to take up cudgels for farmers who have lost their produce to unseasonal rainfall

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) has decided to take up cudgels for farmers who have lost their produce to unseasonal rainfall. Party leaders say this is an attempt by the party to go beyond the sympathy generated by the toppling of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition in June and tap into a wider constituency using bread-and-butter issues like the agrarian crisis.

Mumbai, India - July 3, 2022: Aditya Thackeray reached, during the 2 days special assembly session held at Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai, India, on Sunday, July 3, 2022. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

On Thursday, Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray went on a two-day visit to Nashik and Pune, while party chief and former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray is likely to begin a tour of affected areas in November.

Thackeray junior visited Sinnar in Nashik and Junnar and Shirur in Pune district and met farmers whose crops were affected. On Friday, he is expected to go to the pilgrimage centers of Jejuri and Ekvira devi at the Karla caves in Pune district. The Shiv Sena has sought compensation of ₹50,000 per hectare for affected farmers.

Speaking in Mumbai before leaving for his tour, Aaditya said they were seeking that a “wet drought” be declared in Maharashtra and farmers be compensated for their crop losses due to excessive rainfall. “Even though this government is unconstitutional, the government machinery must help them and give solace to farmers,” he demanded.

In Sinnar, where he was accompanied by Ambadas Danve, the leader of opposition in the state legislative council, and MLC Sachin Ahir, Thackeray lamented that the Diwali of the farmers had been affected by the state not aiding them in this crisis. Without naming him, Thackeray also said that agriculture minister Abdul Sattar was missing on the ground.

Shiv Sena (UBT) sources said that the outreach to farmers was an attempt to go beyond the prevailing sympathy for the party and tap into popular disgruntlement over issues like agrarian distress. “There can be no politics without tapping into such issues. It was after Uddhav Thackeray took charge of the Shiv Sena (by becoming the executive president of the party in 2003) that it began taking up issues concerning farmers and the rural populace more vociferously,” said a Shiv Sena worker. “This campaign to seek compensation for farmers will help the Thackerays move beyond the politics of personalities.Just sympathy will not help them return to power,” he explained.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, rubbished the tour. “He always does event management… they did not utilize the opportunity for two-and-half years when they were in power,” charged BJP state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bavankule. He added that the Shinde- Fadnavis had gone beyond the compensation norms laid down under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to help farmers.