Explained: What Turmeric Has To Do With The Upcoming Assembly Election In Telangana

As Telangana gears up for assembly elections, parties are battling it out in the southern Indian state.

From Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of projects worth more than Rs 13,000 crore to the offer of freebies by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Congress, Telangana is headed for an intense poll battle.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is especially looking to make inroads in constituencies where they achieved promising results in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

What's With Turmeric?

This time, both the BRS and the BJP are claiming credit for helping the turmeric farmers in the state.

Turmeric is a highly sought-after export, with Telangana accounting for nearly 30 per cent of the total turmeric exports from India.

Prime Minister Modi announced the formation of the National Turmeric Board (NTB) in Mahabubnagar during his visit to the state earlier this month. The official gazette carried a notification on 4 October, issued by the Government of India.

The turmeric issue is electorally significant not just for the BJP, but also for other parties looking to create a disruption this time around.

Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP's Arvind Dharmapuri, in an attempt to reassure turmeric farmers in Telangana, signed a bond stating he would resign if the NTB was not announced after his election. This was quite a promise to make.

Dharmapuri eventually won the election from Nizamabad, defeating Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's daughter Kavitha Kalvakuntla of the BRS.

The margin of victory? — 70,000 votes.

A Head Start

Dharmapuri's 2019 victory has been attributed to the dissenting turmeric farmers — 180 of whom contested as independent candidates in the election, leading to a division of the non-BJP votes.

But after Dharmapuri's win, no announcement to set up the NTB came. Rather, the farmers were given a regional office of the Spices Board in Nizamabad. The board promotes several spices, including turmeric.

As feared though, this did not cut ice with farmers. The need for a dedicated turmeric board was felt to address at least two immediate issues:

One, demand of minimum support price (MSP) for turmeric. The context to this demand is that prices for turmeric vary, fetches the farmers anything between Rs 10,000 to Rs 16,000 per quintal.

Two, declining turmeric acreage in Telangana.

According to the data provided by the Spices Board, the cultivation has fallen from 53,104 hectares (ha) in 2018-19 to 40,000 ha in 2022-23.

At the same time, Maharashtra has seen sharp growth in the same from 17,224 ha in 2018-19 to 83,000 ha in 2022-23.

As a result, political representatives from Maharashtra have also been demanding that a turmeric board be set up in places like Hingoli, where turmeric production has been skyrocketing recently.

BJP, BRS Battle It Out

Since the last two to three years, the Congress and the BRS have questioned Dharmapuri and the BJP for their inaction on establishing the NTB.

Since the promise was made on a bond paper, BRS' Kavitha was the first to criticise the MP for not living up to his words.

In 2021, the Congress even planned to protest in Delhi against the BJP on the issue. A Congress leader even stated that special trains would be arranged for turmeric farmers to reach Delhi and voice out their concerns against the Centre.

As recent as March 2023, farmers put out hoardings in Nizamabad mocking the BJP MP for not implementing his promise. Around the same time, PM Modi hit out at the Congress for mocking him on his remark that turmeric can boost a person's immunity. "They didn't insult me but turmeric farmers", PM Modi had said.

Now, since the official notificiation for the establishment of the board is out, and PM Modi has blown the bugle, Dharmapuri gets the bragging rights.

But will it be enough, especially since the notification comes only a few weeks ahead of the election in Telangana?

BRS Not Impressed

The NTB announcement has been decried as an 'eyewash' by the incumbent BRS.

Minister for Legislative Affairs V Prashanth Reddy (who happens to be from Nizamabad) has said that without an amendment to the Spices Board Act, 1986, a turmeric board cannot be established.

Also, while the NTB has been announced, there is no decision yet on which city will host its headquarters, said Union Minister and Telangana state BJP President Kishan Reddy in a media briefing.

Impact On Elections?

As far as the electoral impact is concerned, analysts suggest that as far as Dharmapuri is concerned, the issue is limited to the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency only. There are around four assembly segments here where the turmeric issue can determine voting choices one way or the other.

These four segments are Nizamabad rural, Armoor, Balkonda, and Jagtial — all places where turmeric cultivators are present in large numbers.

The BJP, however, has fielded Dharmapuri from the Koratla constituency, where the party has reportedly cultivated a base for itself in the Munnur Kapu community.

Additionally, says Raka Sudhakar Rao, a senior journalist based in Hyderabad, the impact of turmeric farmers on Dharmapuri's electoral prospects may be inflated by his opponents deliberately.

"We saw a similar pattern emerge when the BJP was starting to make inroads in Visakapatnam. The demand for creation of a railway zone grew louder", Rao told Swarajya.

As of the day, it looks like the turmeric board was an electoral issue only in its absence. As soon as that electoral promise was fulfilled, it ceased to matter politically. Every day brings a new lesson in Indian politics.