Instead of eliminating this system, as expected, Modi’s government has augmented subsidies for sugar exports to support higher output, raised import duties on sugar to discourage foreign competition, and increased the percentage of sugar-based ethanol that must be blended with petrol. His motivation is not difficult to discern: his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hopes that such concessions will help it to wrest control of Maharashtra, India’s main sugar-producing state, from the UPA in the upcoming state assembly election.