After farmers, small traders in Maharashtra are committing suicide, says Shiv Sena

The BJP’s policies, such as GST, are driving Maharashtra’s traders and small business owners to desperation, the Saamana editorial said.

Criticising the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Maharashtra government once again, the Shiv Sena on Monday said that after farmers, now struggling traders are committing suicide because of unfriendly policies.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has said his party will go solo in the upcoming elections. (HT File Photo)

In an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, the party, an alliance partner in the state government, cited the suicide of one Dattatreya Gund, a chana dal (chick pea) trader from Kalamb in Osmanabad district, and said that many policies, including the rolling out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), are driving Maharashtra’s traders and small business owners to kill themselves.

Gund had purchased 800 quintals of chick peas and he did not see the possibility of it selling in the near future, the editorial said. It alleged that Gund, before hanging himself, left a suicide note to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis stating that “government policies had finished business owners”. “Things were going alright, just then your government policies and drought have finished us. Make changes in policies and save farmers and business owners,” his note said, according to ‘Saamana’.

The Sena has been attacking the state government relentlessly, ever since it announced that it would go solo in all upcoming elections. The rift between the two ruling parties widened further after the Sena for the first time fielded a candidate in the Palghar Lok Sabha bypolls, held last week.