SSS president Raju Shetti. (File) The Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) is seriously contemplating breaking away from the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance in Maharashtra, said party president Raju Shetti who added that a formal decision would be taken at the SSS state conclave on April 5 in Kolhapur.
“A formal proposal (on breaking away from) the MVA alliance will be placed and discussed threadbare at the party’s conclave on April 5 in Kolhapur,” Shetti said.
“There is huge unrest within the SSS against the MVA government. A majority of the office-bearers and party workers think that we should discontinue our alliance with the MVA. But unless we complete the process and elicit views of every worker and official, I cannot announce the decision,” he added.
Shetti cited the MVA government’s alleged apathy towards farmers and agriculture sector for breaking ties. “There has been no political will to accomplish the promises made for upliftment of farmers when the MVA government was formed two years ago,” he said.
On February 14, Shetti wrote to Sharad Pawar, president of the Nationalist Congress Party, another MVA ally, and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, listing his demands for farmers’ welfare. However, they elicited no response and that has hurt him and his party workers, he alleged.
“Several lakh farmers were facing hardship as their power connection was disconnected due to non-payment of electricity bills. In its attempt to achieve 100 per cent electricity bill recovery, the government gave blanket permission to officials to ruthlessly disconnect farmers’ power connection,” he said.
Shetti alleged that when the state government constituted sugar price control committee, it did not give representation to farmers and as a result. the powers were vested with members of sugar mills members.He also criticised the MVA government of favouring sugar mills in the issue of fair remuneration price (FRP) to sugrcane farmers.
Shetty ruled out an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and stated that the SSS was planning to remain neutral. “In 2014, when we joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP, it was because they had promised to pay one-and-a-half times higher minimum support price (MSP) for farm produces. However, when they failed to implement the policy, we parted with the NDA. In 2019, we joined the MVA as they had agreed to our reforms in the agriculture sector. But it has been over two years and nothing has been implemented,” he added.
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