The Election Commission of India has rejected nominations filed by 24 of the 25 turmeric farmers from Nizamabad in Telangana, who were planning to contest for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to highlight their agrarian woes.
Istari Sunnam Narsaiah will be the only turmeric farmer from Nizamabad who will now contest against Narendra Modi as an independent candidate, the Returning Officer for Varanasi said. Out of the 119 nominations received by the EC, 89 were rejected, the officer added.
While 55 farmers from Nizamabad and 40 farmers from Tamil Nadu initially decided to contest from the constituency, 25 from Nizamabad and 4 farmers from TN finally filed their nominations.
Speaking to reporters, Telangana Turmeric Farmers Association President Kotapati Narasimha Naidu alleged that the Election Commission colluded with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that they would file a complaint about their nominations being rejected.
On December 11, a total of 185 candidates including 178 farmers had contested from Nizamabad forcing the Election Commission to go for record number of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to conduct the polls. The poll body used 12 EVMs of M3 version in each of the polling booths.
The group felt that their issues were sidelined as the farmers who contested from Nizamabad constituency targeted Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) candidate K. Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. The farmers, who appear sympathetic to the TRS leader, claimed that in the last five years she fought to get Centre's approval for setting up of Turmeric Board.
Kavitha, who is seeking re-election from Nizamabad, had alleged during the campaign that her political rivals were instigating farmers. She had urged farmers to contest against Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi to highlight their problems.
IANS inputs