This is what happened at the meeting between the delegation of farmers and the Maharashtra government. Girish Mahajan, state minister for water resources: "We've had a positive meeting with farmers in which all their demands were discussed. They had around 12-13 demands out of which we've accepted some and will be giving them a written draft of it. I think they're satisfied with our decisions."


And this what BJP ally the Shiv Sena had to say about the farmers' stir.

The party today threw its weight behind the farmers who marched from Nashik to Mumbai to highlight their problems and said the party would back them regardless of their red flags. The saffron party also said the role of leaders with communist ideology -- a red flag usually symbolises communism -- in the agitation for a separate Maharashtra cannot be forgotten.


The CPI(M)-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha is spearheading the protest that turned south Mumbai's Azad Maidan into a sea of red today as thousands of farmers carrying red flags converged there after walking around 180 km from neighbouring Nashik district.


The farmers plan to surround the state Assembly complex to press for their demands of an unconditional loan waiver and transfer of forest land to tribal farmers who have been tilling it for years.


"It is possible that the government may talk of assurances to farmers and even deploy some of its ministers to temporarily confuse them," the Sena, an ally of the ruling BJP in Maharashtra and at the Centre, said in an editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamana'.


Image: Women farmers marched with their male compatriots reaching Azad Maidan in Mumbai early this morning. Pic: Uttam Ghosh.