Impelled by thwarted political ambitions and a dwindling party base, activists of the Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Paksha, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra, went on the rampage on Monday, vandalising the Sugar Commissionerate here and demanding instant fair pay for farmers.
Mr. Shetti, along with senior Swabhimani Paksha leader Sadabhau Khot and party workers, was taken into police custody.
With the State’s sugar factories — the majority of which are in deplorable financial health — not having paid farmers the full fair and remunerative price (FRP), irate Swabhimani Paksha activists torched the Sugar Commissioner’s car after allegedly learning of the latter’s ‘absence’ from the Commissionerate building. Incensed at being ‘kept waiting’, Mr. Shetti’s party workers orchestrated their destructive riot in media glare.
