This Article is From Dec 20, 2014

Gujarat Aam Aadmi Party to Launch 'Remember Poll Promises' Programme

Gujarat Aam Aadmi Party to Launch 'Remember Poll Promises' Programme

File photo: AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal in New Delhi (PTI photo)

Ahmedabad: The state unit of the AAP will launch campaigns with the theme of "remember poll promises", seeking to increase minimum support price of cotton crops, at a time when the Gujarat farmers' agitation is at its peak, the party said on Friday.

The state unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also announced its plans to form its own farmers' body in Gujarat to raise issues of the farming community soon.

"When farmers in Gujarat are agitating to get better prices for their crop, there is a need of intervention. BJP's then prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had promised to give a minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,500 for cotton crops in many of his election rallies.

"Modi had also blamed the then UPA central government of doing injustice to the farmers of Gujarat," AAP Gujarat's convener Sukhdev Patel told reporters.

"The RSS-backed Bharatiya Kisan Sangh has also cheated farmers by not stressing the need to increase the price of cotton crops. In view of such a situation, we have decided to launch agitation programmes under the theme 'Remember the Poll Promises' in all districts of Gujarat," Mr Patel said.

Mr Patel said that AAP activists are already associated with the Gujarat farmer's agitation through various farmers' bodies across the state.

"We plan to launch AAP's farmers' wing in Gujarat in the near future. The farmers' wing, in its first phase, will give a memorandum of demands to each district collector and raise grassroots issues," Mr Patel said, adding that the future course of action would be decided soon.

Another senior AAP leader and former BJP MLA Kanu Kalsaria said that the sole objective of AAP's agitation programmes is to create awareness among farmers in the state and that would be the only way to liberate them from the clutches of capitalist forces and the state.

Kalsaria also said that, this year the MSP for cotton has been reduced to Rs 750 per 20 kg this year, from last year's MSP (for cotton), which was about Rs 1,000 per 20 kg.

Another AAP member from Surat, Kishor Desai alleged, "BJP is in power both in the state of Gujarat and at the Centre. It can easily increase MSP, but it is under the thumb of certain multinational companies (MNC) and so it does not wish to act in favour of farmers".

AAP has demanded increasing MSP of cotton to Rs 1,500 per 20 kg with immediate effect, Mr Desai said.

Seeking better MSP for cotton crop, two farmers recently committed suicide in Gujarat.

After these deaths, farmers have intensified their agitation. Farmers in various towns in Saurashtra staged protests and opposed the Gujarat government's Krushi Mahotsav.

The central government has fixed cotton's MSP at Rs 810 per bale, but farmers said that they incur huge losses due to the low MSP and have demanded that it should be increased to Rs 1,500 per bale.
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