Farmers' issue dominates Maharashtra's political pitch

Farmers and farmers' woes seem to have turned key issues for all parties to reap political dividends. In Maharashtra, for instance, the state BJP has threatened an agitation if farmers who lost their crops are not given a financial package by the MVA government. While the Congress protested against the farmers' deaths in Lakhimpur Kheri and the detention of Congress' Priyanka Vadra by the UP police, NCP chief Sharad Pawar has described the killings a "barbaric way" to silence the farmers.

The state BJP has demanded that the MVA government provide a comprehensive package to the affected farmers in north Maharashtra and Marathwada by Dussehra failing which the party would launch an agitation . "Farmers have lost everything in the floods. Their crops have been ruined. We want the state to pay farmers their due before Dussehra," former CM Devendra Fadnavis said while in Latur on Monday.