Here's what Modi govt can do to avoid rural Gujarat-like drubbing in 2019

A big takeaway of the 2017 Gujarat state polls has been BJP's inability to hold on its rural seats in some parts of the state, though this hasn't been a uniform trend everywhere, general perception and ground reports do indicate that rural voters haven't been particularly kind to the party.

However, critics of this theory argue that if that was the case then BJP would have lost all the rural seats in the state, which also points to the fact that a particular community of farmers might have felt aggrieved with the party.

Nonetheless, agriculture in Gujarat hasn't been doing particularly well, mainly in the last few years.

Data sourced from the NITI Aayog website shows that in 2014-15 and 2015-16, the Gross State Value Added of agriculture, forestry and fishing dipped to a negative 0.48 per cent and 1.28 per cent, respectively.

This fall, though against the backdrop of over 26 per cent growth in 2013-14 and also two back-to-back droughts, indicated that the state's superlative performance in agriculture was showing signs of wearing off.

On top of that, the sharp fall in prices of main commercial crops in just concluded kharif harvest season and even before that aggravated the distress.

The prices of major commercial crops, particularly groundnut and cotton, have dropped below their state-fixed minimum support price (MSP) – the average mandi price of groundnut seed this month was around Rs 3,800 a quintal, as against the MSP of Rs 4,450, while cottonseed prices were also below the MSP of long staple cotton Rs 4,320 per quintal and also that of MSP of medium staple cotton Rs 4,020.
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Not just UP: Niti Aayog has worked on Rajasthan, MP development model too

The Centre’s main think-tank, the NITI Aayog is reportedly working on developing a growth plan for Uttar Pradesh, where the ruling BJP, came back to power after more than a decade.

According to reports, a team from the Aayog is expected to visit the state later this month to discuss the development plan with senior officials and ministers of the state government.

However, this is not first time that the Aayog has helped a state in undertaking reforms or suggesting a roadmap for its growth.

Infact, cooperative federalism is at the very core of Aayog’s philosophy and working.

The Aayog which has replaced the Planning Commission of India has worked very closely with the Rajasthan state government to amend obsolete and unnecessary laws in the state. It also plans to do the same with Madhya Pradesh.

It is helping major states amend their land leasing laws and has so far successfully managed to convince couple of them to amend their decades-old land leasing laws.

Madhya Pradesh along with Odisha have been working on amending their land leasing laws that would make leasing legal and would also ensure that the tenant farmer gets full legal right to compensation, insurance etc in case of crop damage without impacting the legal ownership.

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