BJP looks to connect with cane farmers in western UP

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath is expected in Baghpat on Monday for the launch of the new crushing season of the Ramala sugar mill there as the BJP looks to connect with sugarcane farmers in western UP.

This would be the first crushing season of the Ramala mill after its capacity expansion, a promise that BJP had made to the farmers in 2018.

Adityanath is also expected to address the farmers after the launch of the crushing season. The BJP has already begun telling the farmers in western UP how the capacity enhancement of the sugarmill would help them.

“The crushing capacity of the Ramala sugarmill has now been increased from 27,500 quintal sugarcane to 50,000 per day. A 27 megawatt power plant has also been set up in the mill premises. Now, an estimated 90 lakh quintal sugarcane crushing would be done here and this would lead to production of nearly 9.5 quintals of sugar,” said BJP leader Chandramohan, who hails from the region.

“Nearly 35000 sugarcane farmers would supply cane to the mill. After the mill’s expansion, nearly 2500 people would get direct or indirect employment,” Chandramohan said, citing the development as proof of the BJP’s commitment to sugarcane farmers.

The fact that Baghpat has been former Prime Minister the late Chaudhary Charan Singh’s karmabhoomi has also come in handy for the BJP in running down Charan Singh’s son Ajit Singh, who draws political strength through Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which is primarily a west UP based political outfit. RLD had inked a pact with the Samajwadi Party for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as well as for the recent by-polls.

“We would obviously tell the farmers that while parties like Rashtriya Lok Dal and their leaders like Ajit Singh, who owe their political importance to the region, as well as Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, merely paid lip service to the farmers, it was Prime Minister Narendra Modiji along with chief minister Yogiji who alone thought of addressing plight of sugarcane farmers,” the BJP leader added.

The BJP also plans to tell the people that not just in western UP, but in eastern part of the state too, the government’s initiatives were transforming the fate of sugarcane farmers.

“In Gorakhpur, there has been 1000 hectare increase in sugarcane growing area. The start of Pipraich and Basti’s Munderwa sugarmill, increase in duration of crushing season and timely payments were among steps that have helped the cane farmers,” Chandramohan added.