TIRUCHY: Frustration among farmers regarding the initiatives taken by major political parties has led farmers' associations to ponder over fielding their own candidates in the upcoming Assembly elections, aiming to be a significant challenge to major alliances by being a spoilsport.
The farmers held a meeting recently in which they discussed how the farmers constitute a formidable number of voters across Tamil Nadu, particularly in the Delta region. According to them, at least 60 per cent of voters from all the 41 assembly constituencies are directly involved in agricultural activities, playing a key role in the election.
“Even though there are farmers' associations affiliated to certain political parties, there are several non-political farmers' associations in the Delta region. Thus, we will discuss with those non-political farmers and decide whether to field a common candidate to teach the political parties a lesson," said Karunainathan, a farmer leader from Nagapattinam District.
He said that there will be another meeting of farmers very soon, in which they will finalise the decision about contesting in the election. “We will formulate a farmer-friendly poll manifesto also. We will try to show our strength and certainly will play a spoilsport for the major political parties," Karunainathan added.
