Posters mocking at BJP MP Arvind Dharmapuri have cropped up overnight in Nizamabad town a day after the Centre clarified that there was no plan to set up a separate turmeric board as promised by the parliamentarian to farmers prior to the general elections in 2019.

The yellow ochre hued posters in Telugu announcing “Turmeric Board – this is the turmeric board brought by our MP”, referred to the poll promise made by the BJP candidate in 2019 who signed on non judicial stamp paper to assure turmeric farmers. It was distributed among voters and contributed to the defeat of Kalvakuntla Kavitha, the daughter of K Chandrasekhar Rao from Nizamabad seat in the last General Elections. Even senior ministers and leaders like Rajnath Singh and Ram Madhav had announced that the Centre will set up a separate turmeric board.

Turmeric is the traditional crop of the region. The cultivation of turmeric apart from being quite labour-intensive, it requires quite a bit of capital. A turmeric board has been a long standing demand of the region.

According to the BRS the posters were put up by angry turmeric farmers after the Centre declared that it had no plans to set up a turmeric board in Nizamabad. It may be note here that in recent times the BRS has been using posters to attack the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Four BRS MPs had posed the question in Lok Sabha asking whether the Centre was facing any constraints to set up a turmeric board at Nizamabad. Union minister of state for commerce Anupriya Patel replied that there was no proposal to set up a turmeric board separately.

“Spices Board, a statutory autonomous body, set up under the Spices Board Act, 1986 is entrusted with the responsibility of promoting 52 spices including turmeric, coriander and chillies. There is, therefore, no proposal under consideration to establish a Turmeric Board or any other spice specific Board in the country,” stated the minister in her reply.

Kavitha, who has termed the repeated summons by CBI and ED against her in connection with the Delhi Liquor scam as “political vendetta”, is gearing up to put up a strong fight against Dharmapuri, next year. Apart from the poster war, Dharmapuri is plagued by family feud after his father, veteran politician D Srinivas joined the Congress with his elder son Sanjay Dharmapuri.

Within a day Srinivas’s wife circulated a letter saying that he was ill and appealed to the Congress against dragging him into politics. Sanjay Dharmapuri recently expressed apprehensions that his father’s life was in danger indirectly suggesting that he was being harassed by the BJP.