Thanjavur: With the BJP led central government having let down the interests of Tamil Nadu farmers in the Cauvery row apparently in a bid to woo voters in Karnataka which is going to polls next year, the party’s candidate for the Thanjavur assembly constituency M S Ramalingam is now facing the heat.

Led by P Ayyakkannu, President of the National South Indian Rivers Inter-linking Farmers Association, a group of semi-clad farmers embarked on an intensive campaign in Thanjavur constituency appealing to the electorate not to vote for the BJP candidate in the November 19 elections.

The semi-clad farmers distributed hand bills appealing to people not to vote for the BJP candidate and to ensure that the BJP candidate forfeited his deposit.

Justifying their anti-BJP campaign, Ayyakkannu said that farmers in Tamil Nadu who had been cultivating three crops every year were now forced to a state in which they could not cultivate even a single crop. He claimed Tamil Nadu was fast turning into a desert due to the betrayal of the Modi led BJP government in the Cauvery issue.

The people of Tamil Nadu will not forgive the BJP for refusing to constitute the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Authority and for acting in support of Karnataka keeping in mind the assembly elections to be held there next year, Ayyakkannu said.