Karnataka Elections 2018: PM Modi woos kisans by invoking budget sops

CHIKBALLAPUR: Farmers in this district on the Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border know that there is a BJP candidate contesting from Chikballapur, but are not sure what his name is. They know about PM Narendra Modi, but do not think he is pro-farmer.

“We are only talking of the Congress or JDS candidate. No Siddaramaiah, no Modi. Only Kumaranna (JDS state president HD Kumaraswamy) cares about farmers,” DM Munikrishna said at Oonegal village. In parts of south Karnataka, the BJP has a mere notional existence.

Not even Modi has any resonance here, where local politics dominates and almost everyone is a farmer. BJP’s CM face, BS Yeddyurappa, has tried to revive his pro-farmer image over the past few months while the party’s national president, Amit Shah, came up with the ‘Musthi Dhaanya Abhiyan’ scheme to collect rice from families of farmers who committed suicide and eat it in solidarity with them.


Both these efforts failed to get the sufficient traction, according to Congress and JDS leaders. In a last ditch attempt to reach out to this votebank, Modi addressed members of the Kisan Morcha on Wednesday via NaMo app and tried to enthuse them to take up farmers’ issues. “You come up with new plans and ideas on how to resolve them. You have a very big role to play,” Modi told Morcha workers.

“Our MPs have worked with you all and done their best to implement it (crop insurance) well. The Karnataka government knows how much the PMFBY can help but it is not allowing it to work,” he rued. “We have to convince farmers that they need a government that understands their difficulties and gives them priority. After every budget presented by us, the media has said Modi’s budget is pro-farm, pro-village,” Modi outlined.