As paddy crops fail, Congress’ poll promise of a loan waiver is pushing BJP candidates into a corner

In Dantewada, farmers are hoping for loan waivers, increased MSP, and regular electricity, regardless of who wins the polls.In Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, farmers are facing insufficient rainfall and loan burdens. The Congress has promised to waive farm loans if they come to power, pushing BJP candidates to make similar promises.

With the Congress riding high on its pre-poll promise to waive farm loans in Chhattisgarh in a year of insufficient rainfall, some BJP candidates in the State have been pushed off-script and are promising loan waivers as well, even without official backing from their party.

Sitting in front of a shop at Ganjenar village in Dantewada, 36-year-old Guddu Markam says he does not have the money to hire workers to cut his crop. “What’s the point anyway? There is barely any crop to cut. The crop has dried up; most of it we have already fed to the cattle, and the rest, whatever we cut, we will barely make anything. I have a farm loan of ₹50,000 from the co-operative bank, on which I will have to pay 16% interest if I don’t return the principal amount by April 2024. I need the loan to be waived off,” Mr. Markam tells The Hindu. He adds: “Will the BJP waive it? I certainly don’t think so.”

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His story is echoed in villages across Sukma, Keshkal, Chitrakot, and across the plains of Rajnandgaon district, where farmers who have taken on loans from ₹20,000 up to ₹1 lakh this year are worried because of the rains failing them. In fact, Sukhchain Sahu of Rajnandgaon district — who had a ₹1 lakh farm loan waived when the Congress came to power in 2018 — says that the reason he took out a loan this year was because he trusted that if the crop went bad, there was a chance of it being waived again in an election year. 

Just as it did in 2018 after the last Assembly election, the Congress has promised that this time round as well, if it wins, it will waive off farm loans within hours of taking the oath, hoping to once again woo more than 37 lakh farm families across the State in both the tribal and non-tribal belts. Twenty Assembly constituencies in southern Chhattisgarh, including the entire Bastar belt, are set to go to polls on November 7. As campaign fever reaches a peak, Congress candidates and leaders are amplifying its promises to waive loans and further increase the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy.

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As the BJP drags its feet on an official announcement of its election manifesto for the State, the Congress campaign is pushing candidates from the saffron party into a corner on this issue.