On The Ground In Vidarbha — Dispatch 1: A Primer On The Region That Could Swing The Maharashtra Election

Prologue 

Just before Diwali, I spent a week in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra with one big question in my mind — whether the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti has any chance at power in the upcoming assembly elections in the state. (To know the answer, dear reader, you have to travel with me for at least six more columns.)

Why Vidarbha? If you look at the broad political landscape of Maharashtra, Western Maharashtra and Marathwada are dominated by the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) (NCP-SP)-Congress combine. Northern Maharashtra is usually a BJP stronghold. Konkan and Mumbai, usual Shiv Sena strongholds will face the split Senas for the first time. That leaves Vidarbha as the swing province. Also, Vidarbha is not adequately covered by the mainstream media.

As with previous dispatches from other states, I took an ethnographic approach to learning the social, economic and the consequent political realities.

My journey began in Nagpur and carried me through to Ramtek, Gondia, Pauni (Bhandara), Brahmapuri (Chandrapur), Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Wardha, Yavatmal, Hingoli, Karanja (Washim), Akola, Amravati and back to Nagpur.

In this dispatch, I will paint with a broad brush. We will get an overview of the socio-economic factors at work that will provide us with the base for understanding the voices that we will hear later from. As you will notice, this part of our country Is more complicated than what people realise.

Where Is Vidarbha? 

Vidarbha forms the eastern part of Maharashtra comprising the Amravati and Nagpur divisions. The area includes 11 districts as seen in the map above. It is in the Deccan plateau. and in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats, thus receiving only low rainfall.

As per the 2011 Census, the region had a population of about 2.5 crores. It covers approximately 30 per cent of the total area of Maharashtra and is home to around 20 per cent of the state's population, comprising 77 per cent Hindus, 13 per cent Buddhists (note), and 8 per cent Muslims. (Only) 75 per cent speak Marathi.

A Brief History Of Vidarbha

From the Mahabharata, we learn that Rukmini, the wife of lord Krishna, was born to the king of Vidarbha. In modern history, the Vidarbha region has broadly been under the Maratha Empire (under Sambhaji), the Nizam of Hyderabad and the British (Central Provinces and Berar). Post-independence, the region came under the Bombay State and later, in 1960, under Maharashtra.

This history is important. Many feel that the region has faced neglect and resource disparity as compared to Mumbai and Western Maharashtra. This sentiment, in fact, spawned the movement to create a separate state of Vidarbha. The BJP’s tacit support for the demand attracted many voters. However, the issue never fully emerged, as the Bal Thackeray-led United Shiv Sena, then allied with the BJP, opposed it.

Nevertheless, the region has produced four chief ministers of Maharashtra. Devendra Fadnavis (Nagpur) was the latest from 2014-19.

Agriculture And Economic Issues

Vidarbha, particularly, Yavatmal brings memories of the poignant reports on farmer suicides in the 1990s by P Sainath in The Hindu. There were about 1.5 lakh suicides between 1997-2006. In one of his interviews, he said that the media is good at covering events but not processes. The problem has only become worse in the last couple of decades. Gadchiroli and Washim are part of the Aspirational Districts Programme.

Agriculture is central to Vidarbha's economy, with cotton, soybean, orange, citrus, urad (black gram), oil seeds, turmeric, and onions as key crops. The eastern part, particularly Bhandara and Gondia, is known for rice farming.

However, Vidarbha’s farmers face many challenges, from irrigation issues to inadequate support for cash crops.

• Irrigation Challenges: Vidarbha has long struggled with poor irrigation infrastructure, exacerbated by alleged corruption scandals in the allocation and management of funds. This has left large portions of Vidarbha poorly connected to water resources, heightening farmers’ dependency on rain-fed agriculture.

• Mismanagement and Scams: The irrigation scam of the last decade has been particularly damaging. Between 2009 and 2014, Ajit Pawar was the Irrigation as well as Water Resources Minister in the Congress-NCP government. He also served as the chairman of the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation. In 2012, an Economic Survey report said that Maharashtra’s irrigation potential had increased by only 0.1 per cent in 10 years, although Rs 70,000 crore had been spent on various irrigation schemes during this time.

• Farmer Suicide Crisis: Vidarbha has tragically become synonymous with farmer suicides, especially in areas dependent on Bt cotton. The introduction of genetically modified cotton, promoted as high-yield, resulted in many farmers taking loans to afford the seeds and pesticides, only to be crushed by debt when crops failed. The proliferation of fake seeds added to their woes, leading many to sell their land and, in some cases, work as laborers on the very farms they once owned.

• Failed Biofuel initiatives: Biofuel initiatives aimed at diversifying income sources for farmers have largely failed, leaving them with no alternative income stream.

• Cotton Mills that never came: The cotton mills that thrive in western Maharashtra have not extended their reach to eastern Vidarbha, resulting in limited processing and value-addition opportunities for local farmers. Some allege a conspiracy by Sharad Pawar and the NCP to channel resources to Marathwada.

• Rice Exports: Our country's ad hoc commodity export policies have added to the woes of the farmers. A few months ago, Sharad Pawar even accused PM Modi of being anti-farmer for not allowing rice exports. Last month, the export ban was lifted.

• Revival Efforts by Fadnavis: Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has focused on reviving canal networks like the Bembla (another sad saga of corruption and apathy) and Wainganga projects to improve irrigation. There’s also a push for separate agricultural power grids and solar pumps to reduce farmers' dependency on erratic electricity supply.

Fadnavis has also been a champion of industrialisation of the region. Recently, he inaugurated the Rs 10,000 crore integrated steel plant in Gadchiroli. It is expected to produce about 8 million tonnes of steel per year, accounting for 30 per cent of Maharashtra’s steel output.

Union Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari, too has lavished attention on improving the infrastructure in the region. The flagship Samruddhi Expressway project, connecting Nagpur to Mumbai, promises better connectivity, potentially boosting trade and market access. We will look at Nagpur’s infrastructure in later dispatches.

Recent Issues

• The ruling Mahayuti has announced a slew of welfare schemes in the run-up to the polls that are expected to cost the exchequer approximately 1 lakh crore.

• The Mahayuti government has sanctioned over Rs 700 crore for the Banjara Museum development depicting the community's culture. PM Modi inaugurated it a few weeks ago.

• Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) released the "Gaddarancha Panchanama" (traitors report card) accusing the Mahayuti of misgovernance

• In response, the Mahayuti government boasted of having rolled out infrastructure projects worth Rs 8 lakh crore across Maharashtra, while alleging that the MVA government led by Thackeray had stalled key projects. It was alleged that the Uddhav Thackeray government’s decision to stall projects like the Atal Setu, Samruddhi Expressway, and Mumbai’s underground metro line had led to a cost escalation of Rs 17,000 crore.

• Perhaps the game-changing scheme is the Ladki Behin Yojna, offering 1,500 each to women above 21 years of age is expected to benefit 2.5 crore women voters. We will hear from the people on the scheme.

Low Crop Prices

• The Indian Express reported that all four meteorological subdivisions of Maharashtra — Vidarbha, Marathwada, Madhya Maharashtra, and Konkan — are experiencing surplus rainfall.

• High input costs for soybean and cotton farmers are a major election issue. As the unintended consequence of the Ladki Behin scheme, farm labourers have reduced their work hours, resulting in a labour shortage, leading to higher wages.

• Despite the MSP increase, low crop prices remain a significant concern. For example, soybean is currently being sold at about Rs 4,400 per quintal, almost Rs 500 below the government’s MSP (compared to last year’s market rate of Rs 4,700 per quintal). Similarly, cotton is fetching Rs 6,600 per quintal, which is Rs 300 lower than a year ago.

In the next dispatch, we will look at the politics of Vidarbha. I am ending this with images of two beautiful temples of Vidarbha — Aundha Nagnath temple at Hingoli and Shri Ram temple at Ramtek.

At Ramtek, Bhagwan Shri Ram rested when he was in exile. The great Kalidasa is also supposed to have stayed here too.