The Turmeric Test

BJP바카라�s firebrand Telangana leader D. Aravind is seeing yellow. He is geared up for the Nagarjunasagar bypoll on April 14 and promised setting up a turmeric board in Nizamabad, a longstanding demand of the farmers there. The place produces the best quality turmeric and the farmers feel a board바카라�on the lines of tea and coffee boards바카라�will help them get better price for their produce. But the flavour faded from Aravind바카라�s curry when his party바카라�s senior leader and Union minister of state for agriculture, Parshotham Rupala, sent a shock from Delhi. He said in the Lok Sabha that the Centre has no proposal for such a board.

Aravind was gung-ho after the BJP won the Dubbak assembly bypoll recently, followed by the party바카라�s stellar show in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections, both of which observers say were made possible by his meticulous planning. Aravind took the Owaisi brothers head-on in Hyderabad. For the record, Aravind snatched the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat in 2019 from Kalvakuntla Kavitha, daughter of chief minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao, mainly on the promise to set up a turmeric board.

The latest turmeric board fiasco has pleased his rivals. The ruling TRS is holding no punches바카라�that Aravind was done in by his own senior leaders in Delhi. TRS leader K. Suresh Reddy of Nizamabad asked: 바카라�With what face can he dare campaign for his party in Nagarjunasagar now?바카라�

Aravind played down the issue. 바카라�The Centre has agreed to set up a regional spices board, instead of a turmeric board exclusively. It has declared Nizamabad as the turmeric export hub and more than 10 lakh metric tonnes were exported last year. A slew of measures have been taken to benefit the farmers, like a ban on import of turmeric,바카라� he says. Will the barbs spoil his odds? 바카라�I can take care of the Opposition,바카라� he retorts.

By M.S. Shanker in Hyderabad