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Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Paksha likely to snap ties with MVA
PUNE Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Paksha is likely to decide its next political direction and a fate of its alliance with Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) next month
PUNE Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Paksha is likely to decide its next political direction and a fate of its alliance with Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) next month. The farmers’ outfit has called its state level conclave on April 5, amid growing demand from party office bearers to snap ties with MVA.
According to Shetti, the meeting will discuss the road map for the organisation and take a call on proposal on whether the Swabhimani Shetkari Saghtana should continue or break the alliance with the MVA government in Maharashtra.
Interestingly, party’s sole legislator from Morshi in Amravati district, Devendra Bhuyar, isn’t on the same page and may not follow outfit’s diktat. Bhuyar on Monday praised the MVA government’s policies while claiming that so far, he has not been consulted on the issue of alliance.
“They have called a meeting and if they take me into confidence about the alliance, I am with them. Otherwise. I will choose my own course,” said Bhuyar, whose main contest in 2019 assembly polls was with BJP’s Anil Bonde. According to Swabhimani Paksha leaders, Bhuyar’s proximity with the NCP has grown in the past few days.
According to Bhuyar, the MVA has addressed many farm-related issues that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre did not. “There were many issues that the MVA government has addressed. On power issue, both Centre and state government will have to jointly take a call,” said Bhuyar.
His line contradicts that of Swabhimani Paksha and its chief Raju Shetti. Shetti has in the past few months consistently targeted the MVA government on various issues including disconnections of electricity supply, compensation to flood affected farmers from Kolhapur and Sangli, and rate offered to sugarcane growers by mills.
Last week, Shetti, a farmers’ leader said that the MVA came to power on the promise of taking pro-farmers initiatives. “Two years later, almost all the policies and programmes that were promised remained unaccomplished. The farmers and the agriculture sector are not priorities for the MVA government. This is very unfortunate, we feel let down,” Shetti had said.
In September last year, Shetti held a five-day-long march against MVA government, demanding more relief to the people affected by floods that had taken place in western Maharashtra in July.
Shetti was promised a seat in legislative council by the MVA, and accordingly the cabinet also sent a list of 12 persons including Shetti to be nominated. However, with governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari not taking any call on the list, Swabhimani Paksha insiders say its clear they are unlikely to get any seat now.
At the same time, many of his colleagues in the party feel that staying with MVA may not be politically beneficial to the farmers’ outfit, which has consistently taken a stand against NCP and its leaders in the past.
Shetti has previously represented Hathkanangale constituency in the Lok Sabha. In 2019, Shiv Sena’s Dhairyasheel Mane defeated Shetti, who is once again looking to contest from same seat in 2024. Political observers say, given that Sena is unlikely to give up its claim on the seat, Shetti’s option to continue with MVA may not have been fruitful.
Earlier, his party was also part of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2014 but chose to walk out of it for not fulfilling the promise to double the income input cost as minimum support price (MSP) of farm produce.
