AIKS Urges Farmers, Voters to Back Left Front, SPA in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu Polls

New Delhi: The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has appealed to farmers and voters in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu to support the Left Front (LF) and the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) respectively in the upcoming assembly elections, framing the polls as a critical moment for pan-India agrarian struggles and federal rights.

In a statement issued on Saturady, the AIKS called for the defeat of both the BJP-led NDA and the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, accusing the two formations of betraying farmers' interests through policy failures, corruption, and authoritarian governance.

The AIKS trained its sharpest criticism on the BJP-NDA government at the Centre, accusing it of failing to honour a key 2014 manifesto pledge to fix the Minimum Support Price at C2+50% with guaranteed procurement. The kisan body said that over 12 years of Modi rule, the denial of remunerative prices has deepened agrarian distress, swelled farm debt, and driven up farmer suicides. Simultaneous cuts in fertiliser, pesticide, and food subsidies, alongside rising petroleum and essential commodity prices, have sharply inflated both production costs and living expenses for rural households, the statement said.

The AIKS welcomed the election manifesto of the SPA in Tamil Nadu, led by the DMK, which has promised an MSP of Rs 35 per kilogram for paddy, Rs 450 per quintal for sugarcane, and an additional Rs 5 per litre for milk. The organisation described these three crops as the backbone of Tamil Nadu's agriculture and said that remunerative pricing was a farmer's right that would help rejuvenate the sector. Tamil Nadu has approximately 35 lakh paddy farmers, two lakh sugarcane farmers, and 30 lakh dairy farmers, according to the AIKS.

In West Bengal, the AIKS highlighted the acute crisis faced by the state's 15 lakh potato farmers, who it said are receiving a mere Rs 2 to Rs 3 per kilogram for their produce, while consumers across the country pay between Rs 20 and Rs 30 or more per kilogram. The organisation held both the Modi government and the TMC administration responsible for protecting large traders and intermediaries who profit from farmers' distress.

The Left Front, led by the CPI(M), has promised in its manifesto to implement the Swaminathan Commission recommendations and provide a legal guarantee for MSP for 16 essential crops at 1.5 times the cost of production. The LF has also pledged to establish panchayat-level cooperatives and Farmers' Producer Organisations for direct procurement and marketing, reopen closed tea gardens, and modernise the jute and agro-based MSME sectors with credit and market support.

The AIKS said a victory for the SPA in Tamil Nadu and the LF in West Bengal was also essential to protect the federal rights of states, accusing the BJP-led Centre of centralising power, encroaching on state jurisdiction, and violating the Constitution by providing only 31 per cent of the divisible pool — including cess and surcharges — to states. The organisation demanded that states receive 50 per cent of the divisible pool.

The body also called for the rejection of what it termed a series of anti-farmer and anti-worker measures, including the VB GRAMG Act, various Free Trade Agreements, the Electricity Bill 2025, the Seed Bill 2025, and the four Labour Codes.

Concluding its appeal, the AIKS said the defeat of the BJP was also necessary to defend the democratic and secular fabric of the country against what it called the politics of communal hate and division. It urged farmers and the wider electorate to consolidate anti-BJP forces and intensify mass struggles against imperialism, corporate dominance, and communalism.