Though the pre-monsoon showers that lashed several parts of the state this week provided relief to farmers, it has worried political parties.
Leaders and candidates in Mysore and Chamrajnagar districts, who were sweating it out to ensure victory in the Lok Sabha polls, are in a fix as most villagers have taken up farming.
Partymen on the campaign trail have been receiving lacklustre response from villagers who are busy preparing for farming.
Farmers, in Gundlupet and Heggadadevana Kote that received early rain, have started sowing commercial crops like cotton and sunflower other than vegetables and pulses. In parts of HD Kote, Periyapatna, Hunsur and other taluks, farmers are preparing for transplantation of tobacco and sowing pulses.
Farming activity has also picked up in neighbouring Kodagu district.
With just three days left to end public campaigning, partymen have been forced to visit villages late in the evening after the farmers return from the fields.
With weather forecasts suggesting more rain in the next couple of days, even the polling percentage is likely to be hit.
JD(S) leader C Nanjundamurthy of HD Kote said they have been forced to extend campaigning in late evenings. “We have shifted our focus to towns and hobli centres instead of remote villages,” he said.
He said the party has assigned local leaders to visit farms and fields to request villagers to exercise their franchise on Thursday before leaving for their fields.
Mahadesha, a farmer in Angala village in Gundlupet taluk, said he and his family have been busy for a week preparing to sow beans and horticulture crops. The rain has also recharged borewells, he added.
He said showers in Bandipur, Omkar and Nagarhole have stopped straying of wild animals. The rain will address fodder and drinking water scarcity inside the forest and also in villages, he said.
Farmers feel that farming activity will start in full swing if it rains more while if it doesn’t, it will lead to crop loss and pest attacks.
They also feel that rain in Madumalai and parts of Kerala will prevent migrant workers from returning to the state for polling as they will get engaged in farming.
Suresh, a BJP worker in Gundlupet, said the rain will affect polling as people are more concerned about agriculture than the elections. “We have requested people to vote in the morning and then go to their fields,” he said.