Buldhana: In a huge embarrassment for the ruling BJP, a distressed farmer, clad in a party poll T-shirt, hanged himself from a tree in Buldhana district early on Sunday.
The incident happened just ahead of Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis' rally. Buldhana has often made news for deaths of farmer. According to a report, it ranked was among the six most affected districts in Vidharbha with over 315 farmer suicides.
The body of the debt-ridden farmer, identified as 38-year old Raju Talware, was found hanging from a tree branch in his native Khatkhed village, around 8.30 a.m.
He was sporting a colourful T-shirt with the BJP symbol 'Lotus' embossed on it along with the campaign slogan, "Punha Aanuya Aaple Sarkar" (Let's Re-elect Our Government).
The T-shirts were distributed by the party to activists ahead of the October 21 assembly elections. The development came on a day both PM Modi and BJP President Amit Shah were in the state for political rallies.
Shiv Sena farmers' leader Kishore Tiwari warned that the incident was "extremely grave" and urged all parties to take serious note of the stress afflicting the state's farmlands.
"Such symbolic suicides turn the spotlight on a very deep-seated crisis that is confronting the peasantry. Unless concrete measures are taken by the government that comes to power, it will get out of hand," Tiwari explained.
According to police, Talware had run into huge farm debts which he could not clear, which may have prompted him to take the extreme step. On Saturday, Fadnavis had targeted the Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar, blaming the agrarian crises and farmers' suicides on "the sins of the erstwhile Congress-NCP government".
