LS polls: Parties struggle to crack code in UP’s 'bitter' sugarcane belt

The accumulated dues of cane growers in the sugarcane belt of western UP — which has 11 Lok Sabha seats, some of which go to polls in the first phase on April 11 — is more than Rs 9,600 crore. In the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 assembly elections, BJP swept the region because of the consolidation of farmers across caste line. But this time, that polarisation looks unlikely