The attempt by turmeric farmers from Telangana to file bulk nominations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh was thwarted by the local police, officials and Bharatiya Janata Party workers on Monday.
Modi’s followers have got the inputs from central intelligence authorities that those who had come to Varanasi to file nominations against Modi were not actually farmers, but were Telangana Rashtra Samithi workers. A couple of them are officially nominated as party leaders in Nizamabad.
That they were the TRS workers was evident from the informal media note issued by the TRS leaders on the denial of permission to them from filing their nominations.
Around 50 contestants from Telangana and 50 others from Tamil Nadu wanted to file the nominations, but the officials could accommodate only 15 of them, who are said to be genuine farmers.
So, it was obvious that the TRS leaders in the name of so-called turmeric farmers sought to create embarrassment to Modi by filing nominations.
Had the authorities accepted all the nominations, the polling officials would have been compelled to use jumbo EVMs or ballot boxes to conduct the polling. More than the tedious exercise of polling, it would have been a major embarrassment to Modi himself.
So, right from the day one, the police, officials and local BJP leaders hounded the farmers.
The farmers staged dharna in front of circuit house in Varanasi against local police and Election Commission for not letting all the farmers to file nomination.
They also alleged that the local police threatened their local supporters who came forward as nominees for filing the nominations against Modi.
They also alleged that the intelligence cops were tracking their movements. The EC authorities were reluctant to give nomination papers as a result of which they had to hire a lawyer to see that they get the nomination papers.