In Maharashtra’s sugar belt, BJP attempts to counter Raju Shetti by propping up protege

Maharashtra Deputy CM meets farmer leader to counter estranged political mentor in sugar belt ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

Last week, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis set the rumour mill running with a late-night meeting with farmer leader Ravikant Tupkar. Sources said Mr. Tupkar raised issues concerning soybean and cotton farmers across the State and was assured by Mr. Fadnavis that Union Minister Piyush Goyal was favourably inclined towards his demands.

While the farmer leader did not ascribe any political motive to the meeting, many analysts saw the outreach as an attempt by the BJP to counter his estranged political mentor Raju Shetti in the State’s sugar belt.

Mr. Shetti, twice MP from Hatkanangale, described the meeting as a move aimed at “splitting” Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), the farmer body led by him. The outfit is at the forefront of the agitation for higher fair and remunerative price (FRP) from mill owners for sugarcane farmers in the sugar belt districts of Kolhapur and Sangli in western Maharashtra.

With the SSS cornering the ruling BJP on agrarian issues, political analysts say the ruling party is looking to stem the anger in the farming community by reaching out to Mr. Tupkar and exploit the schism in the influential farmer body ahead of the Lok Sabha poll. It hopes to thereby gain a foothold in the area that has traditionally been dominated by the Congress and Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Though the two districts send in total only three MPs to Parliament, the BJP’s outreach is part of the party’s strategy to achieve its ambitious goal of bagging 45 of 48 Lok Sabha seats in the State in the next general election, for which it is reaching out to smaller parties and influential community leaders.

The rift between Mr. Tupkar and Mr. Shetti has given the BJP a chance not only to check the growing influence of the SSS in western Maharashtra but also make inroads into the Vidarbha region, said senior political analyst Vivek Bhavsar.

Mr. Tupkar has formidable influence in Vidarbha’s Buldhana and other adjoining districts due to which he was groomed as a potential candidate by the SSS for the 2024 Lok Sabha election.