AIKS Calls for LDF Victory in Kerala to Protect Federal rights, Reject Pro-Corporate Policy by Central Government

New Delhi: The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) on Friday called for a decisive victory for the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the Kerala assembly elections, framing the poll as a critical opportunity to advance farmers' demands for statutory minimum support prices, protect federal rights, and resist what it described as a decade-long pattern of pro-corporate agricultural policy at the Centre.

AIKS warmly welcomed the LDF election manifesto, which has promised to raise the MSP for paddy to Rs 35 per kg, the base price for rubber to Rs 300 per kg, and the price for coconut to Rs 45 per kg. The organisation noted that these three crops form the backbone of Kerala's agricultural economy and that remunerative pricing was not a concession but a right owed to farmers.

The statement highlighted the LDF government's existing track record, noting that it has been procuring paddy at Rs 30 per kg — with 95 per cent procurement equivalent to MSP at C2+50 per cent — while providing a floor price of Rs 200 per kg for natural rubber under the state's Rubber Production Incentive Scheme (RPIS). By contrast, AIKS pointed out, paddy farmers in Uttar Pradesh received as little as Rs 15 per kg under what it called the "double engine" BJP-led government there, roughly half what Kerala farmers receive.

AIKS launched a pointed attack on the BJP-led central government, accusing it of betraying farmers by failing to implement MSP at C2+50 per cent despite having promised to do so in its 2014 Lok Sabha election manifesto. While the Union government announced a procurement price of Rs 23.70 per kg for paddy for 2025-26, AIKS said the absence of an adequate procurement mechanism had rendered the announcement largely meaningless for farmers on the ground.

A significant portion of the AIKS statement was devoted to the prolonged crisis afflicting Kerala's natural rubber sector. The organisation attributed the roots of the crisis to the Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN countries signed in 2009 under the Congress-led UPA government, which it said opened the floodgates to indiscriminate rubber imports.

Average natural rubber prices, it noted, crashed from Rs 209 per kg in 2010-11 to Rs 113 per kg in 2015-16, a downward spiral that persisted for nearly a decade and devastated an estimated ten lakh growers, most of them marginal and small farmers.

The consequences, AIKS said, were severe: widespread indebtedness, abandonment of rubber plantations, collapse of livelihoods for tapping labourers and village-level traders, and a sharp fall in production from 7.71 lakh tonnes in 2010-11 to 4.38 lakh tonnes in 2015-16. Kerala's losses from rubber price volatility over the last decade alone were estimated at over Rs one lakh crore.

The organisation also accused the BJP-led Union government of colluding with major automotive tyre manufacturers — naming MRF, CEAT, JK, Apollo and others — to facilitate cartelisation that artificially suppressed rubber prices to the benefit of industry and at the expense of farmers. Natural rubber imports, it pointed out, had surged from just 45,285 metric tonnes in 2005-06 to 5.51 lakh metric tonnes in 2024-25. AIKS held the Congress equally culpable, saying it had turned a blind eye to anti-competitive practices during its decade in power at the Centre and allowed tyre manufacturers to dominate pricing mechanisms, laying the groundwork for the import-driven collapse.

AIKS credited the LDF government's consistent implementation of the RPIS over ten years with arresting the price decline to a significant extent, helping to revive production to 6.50 lakh tonnes in 2024-25.

Casting the Kerala election in a national frame, AIKS said a landslide LDF victory would strengthen the ongoing farmers' movement across India under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha and the Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions, which are pressing for statutory MSP, loan waivers, and the rollback of what AIKS described as a raft of pro-corporate legislation — including the four Labour Codes, the VB-GRAMG Act, the Seed Bill, the Electricity Bill, and the Insurance Act, as well as opposition to Free Trade Agreements.

The organisation said a strong LDF mandate would also consolidate anti-BJP forces nationally and intensify what it described as anti-imperialist, anti-corporate, and anti-communal mass struggles aimed at decisively weakening the NDA and the Modi government.