Karnataka farmers stage protests against Congress in Kodangal

Most of the protests are along the bordering areas of Telangana and Karnataka and across erstwhile Mahabubnagar.

Hyderabad: Warning the people of Telangana that voting for the Congress would spell doom for the agriculture sector, farmers from Karnataka are moving across Telangana, staging their protests against the Congress government in the neighbouring State for betraying them after promising sufficient power supply.

Most of the protests are along the bordering areas of Telangana and Karnataka and across erstwhile Mahabubnagar. The farmers, who staged a protest on Tuesday at Jogulamba Gadwal, continued the protests on Wednesday and reached Kodangal, the constituency from where TPCC president A Revanth Reddy is contesting, and took out a rally with over 200 farmers from Karnataka participating.

---

Holding placards and raising slogans against the Congress government in Karnataka, the farmers said they were betrayed by the Congress. Before the elections, promises were made that 10 hours of quality power would be supplied to the agriculture sector but power was hardly being supplied for a couple of hours now, they said.

Farmers from Ribbannapalli, Pothanpalli, Malreddypalli and neighbouring villages of Gulbarga district of Karnataka arrived at Kodangal. They took out a protest rally from Venkateshwara Swamy temple to Ambedkar Chowrasta in the town.

“The Congress has betrayed us and we want to alert Telangana farmers not to vote for the Congress and get cheated,” a farmer was heard saying in a video that is being widely circulated on social media.

The protest rally led to mild tension as local Congress leaders opposed the farmers. Saying that the farmers did not have permission to conduct a rally in Kodangal, the local Congress leaders demanded them to return to their villages. This triggered heated arguments and after the police intervened, the farmers were forced to leave the place.

Farmers in Karnataka have been up in arms against the Congress government for failing to provide sufficient power supply to the agriculture sector. On Tuesday, the Karnataka Farmers Association Federation had staged a Sadak bandh across the State. Many farmers union leaders were taken into custody by the police at Mysuru and other places.

The Karnataka Kalyana Rythu Sangham Raichur, Gulbarga and Yadgir unit members staged a protest rally at Jogulamba Gadwal as well. Unit president Dharma Reddy appealed to Telangana farmers not to vote for or support the Congress party.