Cong's promise to hike MSP of paddy stalls procurement

New Delhi: When it comes at taking the advantage of political announcements made during electioneering by both the key political parties – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress — farmers in Chhattisgarh are much ahead of others as they (farmers) have 'stopped' selling their paddy stock at the existing minimum support price (MSP) after Congress president Rahul Gandhi announced increasing MSP of the crop on the formation of his government in the state.

According to experts, the farmers are waiting for the final results, which would be declared on December 12. "The promises made by Congress are really 'lucrative' for the farming community. It's a fact that financial condition of farmers are good in the state and sometimes they don't even get production cost of their crop when prices crash," said Arvind Mohan, a celebrated political commentator.

"The farmers might have 'stopped' selling their paddy crop at the existing MSP just in the hope that if Congress comes to power in the state, they would get better MSP," he said, adding, "The Congress has promised to give a support price of Rs 2,500 per quintal. So they are holding their stock till the formation of new government."

Notably, the Congress president has also promised to waive off farm loan after 10 days of government formation in the state. A similar promise was also made by BJP during the Uttar Pradesh assembly election and the saffron party had won the election with a thumping majority.

The polls for the Chhattisgarh's 90-member assembly held in two phase. In The polling for the first phase was held on November 12, while voting for the second phase ended on November 20. The Congress is hoping to defeat the ruling BJP, which is in power for the last 15 years in the state.