…likely to skip Vidarbha during Maharashtra visit

Although the Congress has been staking claim on the loan waiver package to the farm sector, the majority of farmers in the “suicide belt...

Although the Congress has been staking claim on the loan waiver package to the farm sector, the majority of farmers in the “suicide belt” of Vidarbha are still not able to reap its benefits. To add to their wounds, AICC chief Sonia Gandhi will skip the area during her rallies in Maharashtra.

Initially, the Congress had planned four Sonia rallies in Maharashtra, on March 17 and 18. The tentative locations were: Yevatmal (Vidarbha), Manor or Jawhar (Thane), Osmanabad (Marathwada) and Nagpur.

Now, Sonia would visit the state only for a day on March 17 and address two rallies. The probable locations are Sangli (Western Maharashtra) and Osmanabad (Marathwada). She is to land at Latur and go to Sangli for a farmers’ rally around noon. Then she would return to Latur and go to Osmanabad for another rally.

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Later, she is to return to Latur and fly back to Delhi. The reason for Sonia avoiding Vidarbha is that most farmers there would not get benefits of the loan waiver. Only those who hold less than five acres of land are eligible for the loan waiver while Vidarbha farmers hold more than five acres and are under debt of smaller amounts than their counterparts in the well-irrigated Western Maharashtra.

“Organising a farmers’ rally in Vidarbha will boomerang on us,” a senior Congress leader said. “We don’t want Sonia to be heckled by farmers who have been left out of the loan waiver package.”

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