Raju Shetti
Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana president Raju Shetti, who was the convenor of the ‘Save Constitution’ rally taken out by Opposition parties here on Friday, said the biggest challenge before the Opposition was to provide a credible alternative to the ruling BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Although Opposition parties have united under the ‘Save Constitution’ agenda, making it a mass movement remains a formidable task,” he felt. “We have made a good beginning. But there are serious issues which needs to be resolved to sustain the Opposition unity,” he said.
He felt big parties namely the Congress and NCP need to shed their “highhandedness” and “political oneupmanship” vis-a-vis smaller parties. “The policy of ‘use and throw’ against the smaller parties will have to be set aside. Instead, they will have to co-opt all the likeminded forces keen to support them for the larger common objective of fighting the BJP,” Shetti said.
“Senior leaders and big parties will have to give equal importance to smaller parties,” he said. “The Congress is responsible for the ill-treatment to smaller parties in the past that led to the strengthening of the BJP and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra,” he said.
“Smaller parties like us may not be able to win many seats but we certainly have a sizeable vote share which can play spoilsport,” he said. “Gone are the days when smaller forces would take a backseat. Now, when we talk of a united Opposition, all aspects beginning with policies and politics will have to be adequately determined with our consultation and consensus,” he added.
While asserting that the Sanghatana will retain its separate identity, he said, “Whether it relates to reforms in the Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs) or the farm sector, we will not compromise.”
The Congress and NCP, which take a selective stand when it comes to voicing support on criticial legislations on agriculture reforms, will not serve the larger interests of Opposition unity, he added.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha and state Assembly polls, Shetti had joined the BJP-led alliance against the Congress and NCP. After three years of the Modi government, he decided to distance his party from the NDA. “Yes, I had joined the BJP grand alliance in the 2014 elections. I had conveyed clearly that I was not leaving my secular agenda.
I supported the BJP as I believed the Congress and NCP had worked against farmers. And felt the BJP’s reforms would help farmers. However, after three years I felt disillusioned. Our main demand is enforcement of higher minimum support price for farm produce,” he said.