bhubaneswar when bjps padampur bypoll candidate pradip purohit returned without filing his nomination on november 14 in solidarity with the plight of a group of agitating farmers the party created a buzz by raising the farmer issue as its key agenda to win the hearts of cultivators who constitute a sizeable portion of the electoratenot just the bjp but other contestants too threw in their lot behind the farmers as padampur is an agrarianrich yet droughtprone constituency in odishas bargarh district nonrelease of crop insurance money under the pradhan mantri fasal bima yojana poor irrigation facilities and demand for 2021 drought assistance to farmers were some of the issues that provided fodder to all parties to take on each other bjd and bjp indulged in a slugfest by blaming each other over the delay in disbursement of crop insurance a delegation of farmer organisations led by union minister dharmendra pradhan met the union agriculture minister narendra singh tomar at delhi and passed the buck on the bjd government for the delay in the payment of the crop insurance tomar subsequently hit the campaign trail at padampur and came down heavily on the state government for allegedly blocking the crop insurance on its part the bjd accused the bjp government at the centre for the nonrelease of the crop insurance a few days before the bypoll date was notified chief minister naveen patnaik had announced a rs 488 crore package including some irrigation projects for padampur a few days before the bypoll the government also announced rs 200 crore input subsidy for farmers across the state in a bid to woo the agrarian belt in padampur in the runup to the byelection naveen also announced cash assistance of rs 1000 each for kendu leaf pluckers in odisha who are sizable in numbers in padampureven though padampur remained a droughtprone belt during naveens 22year rule so far the farmers reposed faith on the bjd and voted its candidate barsha singh bariha in the byelection shockingly the bjp candidate purohit himself is a farmer leader who failed to win the confidence of the farmer community said s n tripathy a political analystit must be noted that many farmers under the banner of rajbodasambar krushak sangathan have been sitting on a dharna in front of the subcollectors office at padampur over the neglect by the centre and state government towards farmers we have been neglected by the centre and state government our agitation will continue until different issues involving farmers are resolved the sangathans advisor ramesh mohapatra said