NIZAMABAD: IT seems that out of the 25 turmeric farmers from Telangana who had filed their nominations at Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh, only one will actually be taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to sources, the officials at Varanasi had received a total of 119 nominations, out of which 89 were rejected. Among these rejected nominations are 24 of the State’s turmeric farmers. The accepted nomination is that of one Istari Sunnam, a turmeric farmer from Yergatla village of Nizamabad district.It may be recalled that a delegation of 50 farmers belonging to the Telangana State Turmeric Farmers Association had reached Varanasi to file nominations, in order to highlight their demand for the creation of a Turmeric Board.
They have been demanding the setting up of the board so as to set remunerative prices for their produce. They had decided to file nominations from the PM’s constituency to highlight their issues.
In fact, as many as 50 farmers from the region went to Varanasi with the intention to fight the Prime Minister. However, due to various reasons, only 25 could do so. Most of the unsuccessful ones could not find proposers to back their candidature.
Narasimha Naidu, president of Telangana Turmeric Farmers Association, and one of the farmers who went to the city claimed people working in Central intelligence agencies were following them. “We are being intimidated and discouraged from filing nominations,” Naidu had said then.