In '18 rerun, Baghel vows farm loan waiver if Cong wins polls

Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Monday promised to waive farm loans if the Congress retains power in the state in the upcoming assembly elections, in a bid to woo farmers who constitute about 60% of the total households in the state.

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The Congress made a similar promise to farmers ahead of the 2018 polls, a move that contributed to the party's landslide win in the state and ended the Bharatiya Janata Party's 15-year rule.

Baghel said that his government waived farm loans worth ₹7,200 crore after coming to power in 2018, benefitting 1.82 million farmers in the state. Most of the loans waived were taken from the state cooperative and government run nationalised banks.

Addressing a function in the Sakti assembly constituency with just a fortnight left for the first phase of polling in the state, Baghel urged people to re-elect the Congress to power so that the party's government could write off loans of farmers like it did after victory five years ago.

"Today I want to make an announcement from this stage that farmer's loans will be waived if you elect Congress to power again. This is one of our guarantees. We will announce more in the coming days," the CM said.