Farmer suicides is the prime focus for Sena: Uddhav

PUNE: Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said the issue of farmers suicide was the primary concern of the Saffron alliance and it will soon launch an agitation for waiver of their loans if the Maharashtra government fails to take action.

''If the state government does not act in the interests of farmers, we will not allow any state minister to move around in Mumbai and launch an agitation,'' he said while addressing a huge rally here.

Uddhav warned that his party has set March as a deadline for the state government to waive off the beleagured farmers loans in a bid to stop their suicides.
 
The Sena leader said the Congress and NCP will lose heavily in Western Maharashtra in the coming assembly elections on the farmers suicide issue, which would be the Sena's main election concern.
 
He said if the party gets adequate support in Vidarbha, then the Saffron alliance would come back to power in the state.
 
He criticised NCP chief Sharad Pawar for not doing anything for the farmers despite holding the Agriculture ministry.
 
''We had hopes that Mr Pawar would do something for farmers as he holds the agriculture ministry, and he understands their problems as he himself being one. But we are disappointed, if at all, anything is happening, then farmers are losing their fertile land to sepcial economic zones (SEZs) and barren land's are just lying unused,'' Uddhav said.
 
All Shiv Sena leaders, including Manohar Joshi, Ramdas Kadam, Neelam Gorhe, and more than sixty thousand people attended the rally.