Will mid-way course correction help placate onion farmers in north Maharashtra?

Deepak Gangurde, a generation-next farmer, says, “The frequent changes in onion policy have led to price crashes dealing a major setback to farmers. With surplus stock in the domestic market following the ban on onion exports, many have failed to recover their investment cost.”

Laxman Pansare, a farmer from Puri village, owns five acres of land. “When farmers went on protest to raise their concerns they paid no attention. Now, they are doling out promises of higher remuneration for onion crops. What is the point? Will they compensate for the financial loss of each and every farmer?” he said.

The refrain among farmers across Pimpalgaon, Chandvad and Lasalgaon, which is Asia’s largest onion-producing belt, is that the state government has failed to raise their problems with the Centre.

The farmers are already confronted with the vagaries of nature: first delayed rain and then unseasonal rain and hailstorm. In September 2023, the centre imposed a 40 per cent duty on onion exports. Three months later came a ban on onion exports till March 31, 2024. Now, the ban has been extended indefinitely.

Union minister and BJP MP Bharati Pawar, who is contesting the Dindori seat, is confronting farmers’ wrath across the belt during her election campaign. The minister of state for health in the Narendra Modi government was among those who had raised farmers’ concerns with higher authorities. But the Centre has refused to relax the export duties and the ban.

Farmers said that Bharati Pawar, being a junior minister, might have had no say in the government’s decisions. “But then she should have resigned and stood by farmers,” said a farmer, who believes the team that came for an inspection misguided the Centre.

6 Lok Sabha constituencies and 36 Assembly segments

The contest in Dindori, where onion farmers will play a crucial role in determining the outcome, is between Bharati Pawar and Bhaskarrao Bhagare of the NCP(SP). Seven-term CPM MLA Jiva Pandu Gavit has also filed his nomination. The Left party is an ally of the Maha Vikas Aghadi but fielded a candidate after the Sharad Pawar-led party did not consider its demand for the Dindori seat.

With six Lok Sabha constituencies covering 36 Assembly segments, north Maharashtra has been a BJP stronghold for the past 10 years. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the alliance of the BJP and the undivided Shiv Sena won all the six seats. The BJP won five seats and the Sena one.

The six Lok Sabha seats will go to the polls in the last two phases—Jalgaon, Nandurbar and Raver will vote on May 13 and Dhule, Dindori and Nashik on May 20.

Out of the five seats—Dindori, Jalgaon, Nandurbar, Dhule and Raver—that the BJP is contesting, there is a new candidate only in Jalgaon, where former BJP women’s wing president Smita Wagh has replaced sitting MP Unmesh Patil.

Apart from the onion farmers’ wrath, the BJP also has to deal with the anti-incumbency factor against its two-term MPs, Heena Gavit (Nandurbar), Raksha Khadse (Raver) and Dr Subash Bhamre (Dhule).

The Opposition MVA’s candidates for these three seats are the Congress’s Gowaal Padvi for Nandurbar, Dr Shobha Bachav for Dhule and NCP(SP) candidate Shriram Patil for Raver.

Padvi is the son of former minister and sitting MLA KC Padvi.

The tussle for Nashik

For the Nashik seat, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has fielded Rajabhau Waze. The Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, which has claimed the seat among the ruling parties, has not announced its candidate.

The constituency saw a tussle between the Shinde-led Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, whose senior minister Chhagan Bhujbal was the frontrunner from the ruling Mahayuti for the ticket.

But Shinde raised his objection.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Bhujbal said, “I had never asked for the Lok Sabha ticket from Nashik or any other place. Suddenly, I was told that I should contest from Nashik as it was the wish of the BJP’s central leadership. I started preparing. But I don’t know what happened behind the scenes. There was no official go-ahead. So last week I announced that I was withdrawing from the race.”

Bhujbal, who is an OBC stalwart, added, “My point is they should decide soon. Field any candidate But do it soon.”

Given the political developments that led to the splits in the Shiv Sena and the NCP, “both Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar will try to exploit the sympathy factor for their respective parties”, he said.

Farmers’ walk from Nashik to Mumbai

In March last year, 10,000 farmers held a march from Nashik to Mumbai to press for the long-pending implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006. The march, organised by the All India Kisan Samiti, saw farmers and adivasis walking long stretches between Nashik to Mumbai.

A 17-point charter was presented to the state government. From a loan waiver, electricity bill waiver, power supply, implementation of Forest Rights Act and higher remuneration for soybean, cotton and onion to implementation of the old pension scheme, the list was long. After a series of meetings and assurances by the government, the march ended.

While conceding that the onion farmers’ resentment was a cause for concern, a BJP poll manager said, “At the end of the day, people will decide on the Modi factor.”

“The central and state governments have given farmers Rs 12,000 annually. To address the onion crisis, the state government has given a Rs 300-crore subsidy to three lakh farmers,” the BJP leader added.

The BJP leader believes the party’s political dominance will help it to effectively counter the Opposition.

Of the 36 Assembly seats under the six Lok Sabha constituencies in north Maharashtra, the BJP won 13, Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) six, Congress six, NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) seven, the AIMIM two and independents two.