UP BJP eyes farmer votes through sugarcane politics

Lucknow, June 19 (IANS) With an eye on farmer votes, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is especially focusing on the Ramala sugar mill that is just concluding its first crushing season after its capacity expansion — a promise that BJP had made to the farmers in 2018.

This would be the first crushing season of the Ramala mill whose expansion was inaugurated by Adityanath in November last year.

Ramala is a large village in Badaut tehsil of Baghpat district in western Uttar Pradesh. It is known for its sugar factory. Ramala has been the focus of late Chaudhary Charan Singh’s farmer politics.

BJP spokesman Chandramohan, who belongs to western UP, said, “The crushing capacity of the Ramala sugar mill has been increased from 27,500 quintals of sugarcane to 50,000 quintals per day. A 27-megawatt power plant has also been set up in the mill premises. Now, an estimated 90 lakh quintals sugarcane crushing would be done here.”

He said that the sugar mill caters to nearly 35,000 sugarcane farmers and after the expansion, nearly 2,500 people have got direct or indirect employment.

“We will 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 Modi along with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who alone thought of addressing the plight of sugarcane farmers,” the BJP leader added.

–IANS

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