On a hot May afternoon, a long queue of tractor trolleys loaded beyond capacity with sugarcane, are lined up outside the Upper Doab Sugar Mills in Shamli district – in the heart of western Uttar Pradesh’s sugarcane belt. By-elections for the Kairana Lok Sabha seat – of which, Shamli forms an assembly segment – are due to be held in a few days and pending sugarcane dues – Rs 12.5 billion at the time – has become the one issue that has come to define this election.
Ankur Sharma in Vahelna argues that the only profit for farmers from growing sugarcane is feed for bovines. “That’s all. They give us milk. We survive.”