Former PCC president Ponnala Lakshmaiah has alleged that 14 lakh farmers are being denied voting rights in the elections to the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Societies and Farmers Service Cooperatives in the State.

He said the hurried manner with which the government has announced elections to the agricultural societies without giving any scope for revision of voters and members indicates that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao wants to complete the process.

This, he said, was due to the fact that the Chief Minister fears the farmers who would vote against the TRS supported candidates questioning the government on denial of loan waiver and partial release of Rythu Bandhu. As the government failed to release the loan waiver funds, farmers’ dues have increased with the interest growing. Farmers are angry and Mr. Rao has realised it, and that is why the elections are being held in a hurried manner without involving the farmers. “Mr. Rao can’t face the farmers, given the fact that all his promises are yet to be fulfilled,” he said. Mr. Lakshmaiah alleged that the government has collected ₹ 390 crore from sheep rearing societies and ₹1,040 crore from the fishermen societies as advance but it is yet to give any assistance to them. With the closure of Telangana State Co-Operative Marketing Federation Limited (Markfed), farmers are not getting any remunerative prices, he alleged.