Assembly Elections 2018: Was loan waiver promise a game changer for Congress in MP?

Congress president Rahul Gandhi's promise of a farm loan waiver, if his party is voted to power in Madhya Pradesh, seems to have helped it reap a rich harvest of votes and end 15-year-long wait for power.

In the wake of Gandhi's populist promise made during campaigning for the November 28 polls, cultivators did not sell their paddy produce and stocked them to reap the benefit of the promised loan write-off, a farmer leader said Wednesday.

This was done to avoid paying loan instalments to banks as sale proceeds would have been directly deposited in their accounts, he said.

The Congress chief had promised loan waiver for farmers within 10 days of forming a government in the state.

Madhya Pradesh State Cooperative Marketing Federation, popularly known as MP Markfed, procured just 67,148 metric tonnes (MT) of paddy from farmers between November 15 and December 8, an official said.

The paddy procurement was 4.30 lakh MT between the same period last year.

The procurement carried out by the MP Civil Supplies Corporation was also reportedly negligible, though its chairman Hitesh Bajpai did not provide any figures.

"Farmers held back their paddy produce knowing if they sell it off, their payment under Minimum Support Price (MSP) would be deposited in their accounts by government procurement agencies and the banks would deduct their loan instalments," Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh (RKMM) president Shiv Kumar Sharma told PTI.

"They have voted en masse for the Congress," he said.

On the polling eve, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, in an interview to PTI, had dismissed suggestions that paddy procurement was low due to Gandhi's loan waiver promise, and said it was due to late harvesting.

The BJP Chief Minister had dubbed the Congress loan waiver promise as a "gimmick".

"It won't cast a shadow on polls because loans won't be waived in real term. They promised a loan waiver of Rs 58,000 crore in Punjab which got confined to just Rs 2,500 crore," Chouhan had said.

"If the Congress does not waive loans in 10 days as promised by Rahul Gandhi in his public meetings, we will launch a protest," said Sharma, a former RSS ideologue who also served as MP unit president of the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh.

The Congress has emerged as the single largest party in the state, winning 114 seats, two short of a simple majority of 116 in the 230-member house, but has claimed the support of seven more MLAs.

The BJP, ruling Madhya Pradesh since 2003, bagged 109 seats.