Summary:
They have been neglected by both the parties," Odisha Congress president Niranjan Patnaik said. Buoyed by the recent electoral success in neighbouring Chhattisgarh , the party is hoping it would rub off on western Odisha where party president Rahul Gandhi would be holding a rally on Friday. BHUBANESWAR: The Congress is hedging its bet on farmers as it looks to regain lost ground in the forthcoming assembly and Lok Sabha elections. "We can feel the support of farmers behind Congress as they hardly got any benefit from the BJD government in Odisha and the BJP at the Centre. "The Congress, which has already waived farm loans in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, will replicate it in Odisha if it forms the next government," Niranjan added.He said the BJD government's Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (Kalia) scheme and the Centre's PM-Kisan yojana are no match for the Congress' farm loan waiver and a host of other offers the party has proposed to ease agrarian crisis.Rahul, too, had focussed extensively on farm loan waiver and other pro-farmer measures during his earlier meetings in Odisha..