Sena had put up posters near BJP’s office at Nariman Point lauding the efforts of party president Uddhav Thackeray for loan waiver offered to farmers.
The rift between Shiv Sena and BJP has further intensified after the former came forward to take credit for the loan waiver announced by the Fadnavis government. Sena had put up posters near BJP’s office at Nariman Point lauding the efforts of party president Uddhav Thackeray for loan waiver offered to farmers. In the posters the party mentioned that it’s a historic victory of farmers. Through this act, Sena has prevented BJP from hogging the limelight by writing off agricultural loan. The party had earlier taken an aggressive stand against BJP by imposing pressure on it to waive farm loans. Thus both BJP and Sena are trying to outdo each other to take credit for farm loan waiver.
Sena also has asked BJP to write off loans with immediate effect failing which the party will intensify its agitation. Thus loan waiver issue has become a bone of contention between both the parties. Sena has always alleged that BJP has never taken it into confidence while taking major decisions. The party has always expressed its displeasure over the functioning of BJP through its mouthpiece Saamna. It had skipped the meeting held by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis with a delegation of farmers to look into their demands. Later Shiv Sena minister Diwakar Raote was included in a committee formed by Fadnavis to address grievances of farmers under the leadership of Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil.
Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said, “The government has waived off farm loans due to the initiative taken by Sena. BJP lacked political will to resolve agrarian crisis in the state. They had written off agricultural loans due to pressure imposed by us. We will continue to work for the welfare of farmers.”
“Local leaders have installed these posters after farmers were granted loan waiver. Sena didn’t officially put the posters and they will be removed within a day,” said a Sena leader on the condition of anonymity.
Farm loans of small and marginal farmers worth Rs 30,000 crore will be written off by the government. A delegation led by Chandrakant Patil had met Sukanu Samiti a committee of farmers to discuss about the issues faced by them and finally loan waiver decision was taken by the government for providing relief to distressed farmers. Around 1.07 crore farmers in the state with less than five acre land holding will be eligible for the waiver. The loan waiver will push up states’ fiscal deficit to 2.71% (budgeted: 1.53%) in FY’18 of gross state domestic product (GSDP).
