Caste no yardstick for MP's farmers, 'kisan' identity matters more in polls

Caste no yardstick for MP's farmers, 'kisan' identity matters more in polls If anything, these elections have reset an identity which numerous farmers lived with in the past - as backward caste members. This time, they are voting as farmers - forward, backward, SC or ST

Madhya Pradesh Assembly Election 2018 : Narendra Yadav, 30, is a former ‘pradhan’ (chief) of Chowki village in the Sagar district, 172 km off Bhopal. Chowki is part of the Surkhi Assembly constituency, one of the eight seats making up the Sagar Lok Sabha constituency. Of these, seven, including Surkhi, were won by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2013 election, and one, Deori, went to the Congress. Like most voters in Surkhi, Yadav, a farmer, was a BJP-adherent. But the sight of vast quantities of paddy spread over mats outside his home today disheartens him.

“I don’t know if this paddy harvested after hard work by me and my family will get the price I expect in the marketplace. I have to travel afar to Raisen or Vidisha at my expense to seek a buyer,” says Yadav, ruefully.

In “good” times, his paddy of “high quality” basmati provenance might have fetched Rs 3,000 to 3,500 a quintal. This year, Yadav believes it could go for only Rs 2,000, “if I am fortunate”.

“Demonetisation drained our village economy of hard cash. Nobody seems to have the money to buy,” he says.When he votes on November 28, Yadav says, he will swim with the current and likely go for the Congress, like the rest of Surkhi. “I was initially reluctant to switch sides. But I had to go with the general mood. Then I put up the Congress flag on my roof top. The village followed.

The BJP workers asked questions, but I said nothing will change our minds, not even (Narendra) Modi’s campaign,” he emphasised.If anything, these elections have reset an identity which Yadav, like numerous other farmers, lived with in the past — as backward caste members. “This time, we are voting as farmers — forward, backward, scheduled caste, scheduled tribe. Ideally, politics shouldn’t recognise caste. May be the time has come for that,” says Yadav. If indeed the trend holds good, it is the consequence of several harsh realities that have READ FULL ARTICLE HERE ON –

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