The Congress-NCP alliance in general, and the NCP in particular, was on the lookout for a strong electoral plank ahead of elections scheduled next year, particularly due to the power crisis that has hurt people both in cities and villages. By waiving loans, Pawar in particular, and the Congress-NCP in general, have appeased farmers, bailed out co-operative credit societies (most of which are political hubs like sugar mills).

“We had kept photographs and other printing material ready and the moment the amount was announced in the budget we included it and released the material,” a senior NCP leader told The Sunday Express. “With modern technology, these hoardings can be ready in two hours. So it is no surprise that these hoardings came up so quickly.”

Assuming he would “hijack” credit, Congress leaders alerted state president Prabha Rau, who was in Nagpur, to bring forward her press conference from Sunday to Saturday and it was held almost around the same time as Pawar’s.

At his press conference, Pawar appealed to farmers all over the country to not repay loans borrowed from illegal moneylenders. Although Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil made the same appeal to farmers two years ago, Pawar went a step further and said that he would ask state governments to set up a machinery to support such farmers.

“I will appeal to the state governments and my party members to support farmers who have been caught in the trap of illegal money lenders. There can some machinery set up at the block level through the police or the revenue department to take action against the illegal moneylenders and protect the farmers from their harassment,” he said.