Mallikarjun Kharge. File
| Photo Credit: PTi

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday (October 21, 2024) claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the “biggest enemy” of Maharashtra‘s farmers and asserted that the State has decided that farmers will benefit only by removing the double engine government from power.

In a post in Hindi on X, Mr. Kharge slammed the BJP over farmer suicides in Maharashtra and said the promise of making the State drought-free is a “jumla” (rhetoric).

“The BJP is the biggest enemy of Maharashtra’s farmers; 20,000 farmers committed suicide. Huge cut in funding in farming. Promise of ₹20,000 crore water grid turned out to be false. Promise of making Maharashtra drought-free is a ‘Jumla‘,” he said. Mr. Kharge also attacked the BJP over its “refusal to give compensation to the farmers” while insurance companies are being showered with ₹8,000 crore.

He hit out at the BJP over the export ban and high export duty burden on onion and soybean farmers and the huge drop in cotton and sugarcane production, putting farmers in distress. Mr. Kharge claimed that the State’s milk cooperatives in crisis and the Government itself has admitted it.

“Maharashtra has decided that farmers will benefit only by removing the BJP’s double engine government from power! Maharashtra demands MahaParivartan!” the Congress president said.