The Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) has threatened to launch a State-wide agitation on July 20 to protest denial of kharif crop loans to farmers by banks.
“The economic growth in the agrarian sector in the State has plummeted by 8%. If the government does not ensure that banks disburse crop loans to farmers in the next fortnight, then the SSS will take it upon itself to see that justice is done,” Mr. Shetti said on Wednesday. He was speaking at the end of a two-day meeting of leaders and workers of the Swabhimani Paksha, the political arm of the SSS, in Pune.
Mr. Shetti said the banks have till now disbursed only a little over 20% of their crop loan target, and urged them to speed up the process.
The SSS leader also said his party will contest 49 seats in the Assembly elections. However, the decision on an alliance will be taken next month, party sources said. Mr. Shetti met Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray for a second time in Mumbai on Thursday.
“We have assessed our strength and found that we have significant support in at least 49 of the 288 Assembly segments. This number is still variable. We will hold another meeting on August 1 to finalise the issue of allying with like-minded parties or going it alone,” Swabhimani Paksha leader Anil Pawar told The Hindu .
He said Mr. Shetti’s meeting with Mr. Thackeray was to review poll strategy and explore possibilities of an alliance. Mr. Shetti, a former two-time MP from Hatkanangale in Kolhapur district, had severed ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA in August 2017 and allied with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.
However, the alliance proved detrimental for the farmers’ leader as Mr. Shetti lost to the Shiv Sena’s Dhairyasheel Mane by a margin of 96,000 votes.
Meanwhile, the SSS, as part of its resolutions following their two-day party meet, has demanded that the State government waive the electricity bills of the farmers as well, in parallel with the farm loan waiver. Mr. Shetti has also warned defaulting sugar mill owners to deposit ₹950 crore, still pending in arrears, into the accounts of cane farmers and labourers.
