Apart from “inadequate” crop prices, the farmers of Rajasthan’s Shekhawati region have a second reason to be angry at the ruling BJP ahead of the December 7 state elections.

A burgeoning army of stray cattle — a consequence of the curbs on cattle sales and the lynchings by “cow-protectors” that accompanied the rise of the BJP — is eating their crops.

With people afraid to buy cattle for fear of the vigilantes — who have lynched three Muslim farmers in the Alwar region — villagers are forced to abandon their cows when they stop yielding milk.

“The stray cattle move in herds and destroy our crops,” complained Ramchandra Gadwal, a farmer.

In one village, residents said they had started a cow shelter on their own but were forced to close it because the government wouldn’t help. “We couldn’t afford the cost of feeding and looking after useless animals,” one of them said.

The richer farmers have fenced their fields off with barbed wire after the state government announced subsidies under a “tarbandi (wire-fencing)” scheme.

Jagdish Sain of Mundwad village, however, complained: “Most of us spent a lot of money (on fencing) but are still to receive even a rupee (as subsidy) from the government.”

Others continue to spend sleepless nights guarding their fields.

The farmers’ biggest grouse, however, relates to crop prices. Banwarilal Gadwal, a Jat farmer in Laxman Ka Niwas village, flares up when he remembers Narendra Modi’s 2014 election promise of doubling farmers’ income.

“Sapno ke saudagar hai Modiji (Modi is a seller of dreams),” he says, asked about the BJP’s chances in the Assembly elections.

“A double (back-to-back victory) will remain a dream for them: we are not even getting the minimum support price for our crops.”

Farmers in the Shekhawati belt, which accounts for 21 of the state’s 200 Assembly constituencies, say they are forced to sell in the open market at low prices. The reasons are the “cumbersome” process of digital registration that many of them find difficult to follow and the government’s tardy payments for the crops it procures.

“We cannot recover our input costs. Many farmers are debt-ridden,” said Rameshwar Singh. The Congress has promised to waive farmers’ debts within 10 days of coming to power.

In 2013, the BJP had won 11 of the 21 seats in the Shekhawati region, a traditional Congress stronghold dominated by Jats, Muslims and Dalits. The Jats and Dalits voted for the BJP in large numbers during the previous elections.

“Ninety per cent of the Jats will not vote for the BJP this time. The BJP has betrayed us,” said Sanwar Mal, a Jat farmer in Sikar.

While the anger of the Jats, who make up one-seventh of the state’s population, is a blow to the BJP, it doesn’t seem to be benefiting the Congress, at least in the Shekhawati region and some adjacent areas.

The Jats in these areas appear to be gravitating towards the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, floated recently by the firebrand Jat leader and independent MLA, Hanuman Beniwal, who has vowed to teach the Congress and the BJP “a lesson”.

Congress politicians from the region, however, claimed the Jats would vote for their party in constituencies where the Rashtriya Loktantrik is weak.

Even the Rajputs, traditionally a loyal BJP vote bank, are upset with the ruling party. One reason is the farm distress; the other is the killing of Anand Pal Singh, a gangster popular among his Rajput brethren, in an alleged fake encounter. His death was followed by large-scale protests.

“Many Rajput youths from our village were arrested during the violent protest and spent around two months in jail. Do you expect their families to vote for the BJP?” said Jaivir Singh in Dujod village.

Most people in the Shekhawati region expect the BJP to lose more than half the 11 seats it had won last time.