Bengaluru: Politicians visiting villages in the Malaprabha river basin to campaign for the coming elections could be confronted with boards asking them to " Go back" as farmers here are planning to install them in all nine taluks if the state government doesn't take an all-party delegation to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Mahadayi row by the end of January.
Recalling that similar boards asking politicians to get the people's permission before entering their villages were displayed in the region in the eighties, the farmers leaders say they have decided to adopt a similar strategy this time too and boycott the coming elections unless they get Mahadayi water.
To begin with a delegation of farmers headed by their leader, Veeresh Sobaradmath plans to visit Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at his official residence in Bengaluru on January 11 to remind him of the deadline they have set for him to put pressure on the Centre to intervene in the inter-state water dispute . And if the state government fails to meet it, they will keep politicians out of their villages, they warn.
"Politicians will descend on our villages to woo the voters with their hollow promises now that the elections are nearing. And both the Congress and the BJP will mislead the farmers by engaging in a blame game on the Mahadayi issue. So we have decided to prevent their entry into our villages by displaying banners and telling them to come back only after the Mahadayi water flows into the region," said farmer leader, Guru Rayangouda.
The farmers organisation are planning to create awareness about NOTA among the villagers to makes sure they don't vote for any of the candidates unless the government finds a solution to the Mahadayi row.
