What the PM’s speech in Wardha means for Maharashtra Assembly elections Premium

Prime Minister Modi highlights Vidarbha farmers' struggles, BJP's declining fortunes, and Congress' growing influence in Maharashtra's political landscape.

“The first hero of Maharashtra’s multidimensional progress is the farmer of Vidarbha. The road to Maharashtra’s prosperity goes through him,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday (September 22, 2024) at Wardha, in Maharashtra’s developmentally backlogged Vidarbha region.

He thereafter recounted the measures taken by the Centre and the State for the soybean farmers, the cotton farmers, and the onion farmers. Both soybean and cotton are the main crops of Vidarbha, the region that had given a sweeping mandate to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. From 10 out of 10 seats in 2014 to three out of 10 seats in 2024, the performance of the BJP and its allies in Vidarbha is nothing short of worrying for the party.

It is the distress among these farmers that is one of the reasons behind the dwindled fortunes of the BJP in the region. Vidarbha is ill-famous for the high number of farmers’ suicides, primarily among the cotton farmers. “There is no rate for cotton or soybean. Both the CM and the DCM have admitted it. That is why the ₹4,000 crore package was announced earlier. Now, though the government has announced Minimum Support Price (MSP) for cotton and soybeans and the imposition of import duty on edible oils. But there is no incentive for export at a time when the prices have been so low. So the discontent among these farmers continues,” Vijay Jawandhia, an agricultural expert, said. The prices of these crops in the international market also play a crucial role.

“From cotton to fibre, from fibre to fabric, from fabric to fashion, from fashion to foreign land — these clothes will be stitched here itself and they will be exported in the international market. This will add value to the crop of the Vidarbha cotton farmers here itself,” PM Modi said while laying the foundation stone for MAITRI Park at Amravati.

“There is a sentiment within Vidarbha that most of the funds and development work have gone to Nagpur,” a party insider said. Key State BJP leaders are from Vidarbha: Nitin Gadkari (Union Minister), Devendra Fadnavis (Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra) and Chandrashekhar Bawankule (State President of BJP). But may it be the Nagpur Metro or AIIMS, or IIM, the recipient of all these projects is Nagpur, the constituency of Gadkari and Fadnavis, and the headquarter of RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh).

Vidarbha region has 62 Vidhan Sabha constituencies and 10 Lok Sabha constituencies. The region has traditionally voted for Congress. But it gave a sweeping mandate to the BJP and allies in 2014 and 2019 elections. In 2014, BJP and Shiv Sena got 10/10 Lok Sabha seats. In 2019, they won nine of the 10 seats. But the region favoured MVA during these Lok Sabha elections, with the Congress alone getting five of the 10 seats. The Mahayuti got three of the ten.

For the State election, it is common understanding that the party which scores a majority in Vidarbha forms the government in the State. “The fight in Vidarbha is always two-cornered. Traditionally, it has been between the Congress and the BJP. When one loses, the other gains,” a Congress leader said.