Gujarat Assembly elections | Amid garlic and groundnut, there is little certainty in Saurashtra’s political harvest Premium

It remains to be seen if AAP’s high-pitched campaign or the Congress’s low-key one will succeed in leveraging grievances against the BJP, even as farmers raise issues such as rising costs, lower profits and late power supply; Narendra Modi’s popularity, however, continues to hold sway

Amid neatly arranged bags of dried garlic and piles of groundnut at the Gondal agricultural produce marketing committee (APMC) market, a group of farmers are relaxing after selling off their produce on a Saturday afternoon.

At the biggest agricultural hub in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, barely 35 kms from Rajkot city, there are hardly any signs that the area is going to the polls on December 1.

With 48 out of the State’s 182 Assembly seats, the region is important for all parties. For the Congress, it is crucial to repeat as many as possible of its 2017 tally of 28 seats from here, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is focussed on wresting back its support and the Aam Admi Party (AAP) has emerged as the new challenger.

Asked about the issues dominating these elections, the group of farmers get into an animated discussion before responding to this reporter.

“We [farmers] are unhappy about the prices that our commodities fetch. Our cost of production is going up, be it diesel or fertiliser, but the rates are lower than what we used to get,” says Jamanbhai Sanghani, a farmer from Kalavad who owns 40 bighas of land. “Today, I have had to sell groundnut for ₹1,170 for 20 kg whereas earlier we would sell at ₹1,400-1,500,” he adds.

Sitting next to him, Bhanjibhai Mavji, a farmer from Visaman village of Paddhari taluka, complains about the timing when they get power from the government to run their pump sets. “Power supply is given post midnight, sometimes at 1 a.m. We don’t get to sleep since we have to ensure that our fields are watered when there is power,” he says, adding that the BJP had promised to supply agricultural power during the daytime but has not yet delivered.

Two other farmers, who do not want to share their names, talk about the importance of free power and higher education that is subsidised by the government. “The Dilli party has promised this in Gujarat also,” one of them says, referring to the AAP.