CONGRESS, BJP SET TO MAKE FARM BILLS ISSUE IN BY-POLLS

Team Absolute|Bhopal The ripples caused by the Centre’s agriculture bills may be witnessed in the troubled political waters in MP in the ensuing by-elections. The Congress is set to make it an issue among farmers. The party plans to take the two bills, calling them anti-farmer, to people in 28 constituencies where by-elections will be held. The Congress is getting ready to tell the small farmers that those bills are against their interests. The party is also making a strategy to tell the farmers that the purchase of their produce to be made outside Krishi Upaj Mandis will actually harm them. The farmers will be told that the Narendra Modi-led NDA government passed those bills to benefit the corporate sector.The farmers are being told that purchase on MSP will be scrapped in coming days, and traders will buy their produce at the rates cheaper than they have been getting for all these years.Most of the constituencies where the by-elections will be held belong to rural areas. Majority of voters in these areas are farmers. For this reason, the Congress wants to take the advantage of the farmers’ resentment against these farm bills. The Congress and the BJP are fighting the elections with all their might. The Congress will campaign against these bills so that the BJP may not woo the farmers. A team of the Congress has begun to find out the shortcomings in these bills. The BJP, too, has launched a campaign in favour of the bills. The party has begun to tell the farmers about how the bills will help them to improve their standard of living. The BJP has told the farmers that the Congress is trying to mislead them about the bills, and they should not believe the opposition. The BJP has told the farmers that neither the MSP system nor the Krishi Upaj Mandis are going to be scrapped.Modi govt is anti farmer: NathMPCC president Kamal Nath called the farm bills as anti-farmer and anti-farm labourer. Before passing the Bills, the Central Government neither took the farmers’ views nor discussed with the opposition parties about it, he said. Nath wanted to know from Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan whether he was with the farmers or with those black bills. Cong in habit of misleading people: PatelMadhya Pradesh Agriculture minister Kamal Patel said on Monday that neither MSP nor Mandis would be scrapped. The Congress is in the habit of misleading people, Patel said at a press conference. Patel said the Congress mentioned about these two bills, passed by the Centre, in its manifesto. In these bills, the farmers have been given freedom to sell their produce anywhere they wish, Patel said.Patel said Jawaharlal Nehru never paid attention to farmbased industries, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is rectifying his predecessor’s mistakes.