Ahead of the state legislative elections, the Tamil Nadu ruling ADMK party has been unveiling major announcements and measures to woo the voters in the polls, and following the Pongal gift of Rs 2,500 for every rice ration card holders, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami has on Friday unveiled a massive drive of covering farmers - loan waiver. 

While speaking at the assembly floor on Friday in the ongoing assembly session amid the boycott of the opposition, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami made the announcements under the clause of section 110 during which he announced that the farmers' loans in the co-operative banks across the state would be waived off and his announcement has been commended by the fellow partymen as they got a talking point in the campaign trail by self-branding the ADMK as the real savior of farmers. 

In what has become another set of electoral gift pack to the voters especially for farmers, ADMK hopes that the drive of wooing support from the farmers would give it a crucial push forward to emerge victoriously in the upcoming polls amid the allegations from the oppositions and arrival of VK Sasikala, which would levy more trouble for the party. The political observers see the announcement of waiving crop loans would give a strong pillar for the ADMK in withstanding in the campaign trail. 

Edappadi Palaniswami has announced the crop loan waiver for the farmers who had obtained loans from the co-operative banks in the assembly on Friday. According to reports, this announcement is expected to benefit around 16.13 lakh farmers across the state. The Chief Minister said that the crop loans of around Rs 12,110 crore borrowed by farmers from co-operative banks will be waived. 

Quoting the reason for the huge waiver, the Chief Minister said that the farmers had suffered a lot during the COVID-19 lockdown, heavy rains, and cyclonic storms like Nivar and Burevi. They also had braced up excess rainfall in January which had largely damaged their crops. Earlier, the Chief Minister had also announced Rs 1,117 crore compensation for the damaged crops, which is expected to benefit around 11 lakh farmers. 

Reaching out over 16 lakh farmers in one shot had been seen as perfect bait to yield the votes of farmers in the upcoming polls in favor of the ruling party, which hopes to win the elections and form the government for the third consecutive time. It must be noted that waiving farm loans has been one of the typical factors used by the parties in the state ahead of the elections and Edappadi Palaniswami has now applied the same formula of reaching out to more people through waiving bank loans. 

Earlier last month, the Chief Minister had unveiled a major Pongal package which provided Rs 2,500 for each rice ration cardholder along with essentials for the Pongal festival like rice and sugarcane. Through the Pongal package, it has been expected that it had reached over half of the population and now, the Chief Minister has announced a major loan waiver to cover the farmers, who share a major part of the vote bank based on the occupation.