Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday attacked Shiv Sena (UBT) Uddhav Thackeray, saying the late Bal Thackeray would be sad to see his son deviate from his ideology for the sake of power.

Chouhan was addressing a rally here to seek votes for BJP candidate Charansingh Thakur ahead of the November 20 assembly elections. Thakur is pitted against sitting MLA Anil Deshmukh’s son Salil Deshmukh, who is contesting as the NCP (SP) nominee.

Earlier in the day, he also addressed a press conference in Nagpur and highlighted various government schemes for farmers.

“I pay tributes to (late) Balasaheb. But wherever he is today, he would be extremely sad to see his son deviate from his ideology for the sake of power,” said the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister.

The BJP on several occasions has attacked Uddhav, who earlier headed the undivided Shiv Sena, for siding with the Congress to become a part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition, saying his father was staunchly opposed to the Grand Old Party.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was serving the nation during the COVID pandemic, Uddhav didn’t even step out of his bungalow, Chouhan claimed.

“I was also a chief minister (of MP) at that time but was always in the field for the people,” he said.

“(Union Home Minister) Amit Shah was scheduled to come here today. But he has left campaigning for urgent security issues related to Manipur,” the minister said, asserting that for the BJP, the nation comes first and then elections.

For BJP workers, serving people is akin to worshipping God, he said, adding that the MVA has done “Maha vinash (destruction)” of Maharashtra.

Before the Katol event, Chouhan addressed a press conference in Nagpur, where he talked about various government schemes for farmers and said that the Mahayuti government in the state is doing good work for the farming community.

He said that Rs 5,000 per hectare is being additionally deposited into the bank accounts of cotton and soybean farmers.

The agriculture minister highlighted the ‘Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana’ to compensate farmers in the event of a price crash.

He said tomato, onion and potato farmers suffer losses when prices fall. To counter this, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research will fix model rates for these crops depending on their cost of production and the government will provide them relief, he said.

He also shared the details of the PM Aasha programme that aims at ensuring fair prices for farmers and their produce.

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