Maharashtra elections: Feelings too dead in Yavatmal

YAVATMAL: In the heart of Maharashtra’s farmer suicide capital, the irony is hard to miss.

Even as PM Modi and Uddhav Thackeray express alarm at the high number of farmer suicides in big rallies across the state, in Yavatmal itself that is not the key issue of the opposition’s election campaign. Closely fought contests across the seven seats of this district have prompted local leaders to look for issues which are known to attract voter attention.

According to Rajendra Dange, the district president of BJP, farmer suicides and agrarian distress were the key issues on which elections were contested on in previous assembly elections, but “voters did not respond as expected.” So, for targeting the sitting MLAs in the district, most of whom are form the Congress, the party took up issues allied to agrarian distress such as poor irrigation, excessive loadshedding, unemployment.

Others are not as direct as Dange. When asked what were the key issues on which the Shiv Sena was campaigning, district president and candidate from one of the assembly seats, Sanjay Rathod, said load shedding, unemployment were the key issues.