Accusing both the ruling Mahayuti and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalitions of forsaking farmers and Maharashtra’s rural electorate, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) leader and former MP Raju Shetti on April 15 filed his nomination for the Hatkanangale Lok Sabha seat in Kolhapur district.
An influential farmer leader in the State’s ‘sugar heartland’ (Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara districts) who has decided to contest independently, Mr. Shetti, who had won the seat twice in the 2009 and the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, made a dramatic entry before the Collectorate building on a bullock cart to file his nomination for the fourth time, flanked by thousands of farmers.