Farmers Movement Archive

BJP to take PM Modi’s farm law message to 20 lakh farmers in UP

LUCKNOW: As farmers’ protest against new farm laws continues, the UP BJP has rolled out an elaborate arrangement of taking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message on the birth anniversary of BJP stalwart and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on December 25 to over 20 lakh farmers in UP. This would be almost one-fifth of the total 1 crore targeted audience across the country. BJP sources said that the party would be making arrangements in 1919 organisational divisions besides reaching out to farmers in gram sabhas, cooperative centres and land development banks in the state. This will be apart from the government supported programmes organised in 826 developmental blocks in which ministers, MPs, MLAs, block pramukhs, zila panchayat chairman, cooperative chairpersons and other government officials would be involved. This way the farmers’ outreach would be carried out through over 2,500 centres. The move is seen as the BJP’s attempt to blunt farmers’ protest which has been gaining support from the opposition parties. The PM is scheduled to address farmers after transferring Kisan Samman Nidhi in the bank account of 9 crore farmers of the country. UP alone would account for over 2 crore farmers who would be benefited. Notably, the programme of transferring samman nidhi in the bank account of farmers was kicked off by the PM from Gorakhpur, the home turf of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections. UP BJP vice-president, Vijay Bahadur Pathak said that UP happens to be the biggest state in terms of population and therefore maximum outreach is planned here. “The party plans to take PM’s message to the maximum possible farmers in the state on Atalji’s birth anniversary which is being celebrated as ‘Sushasan Diwas’. Therefore, besides making arrangements in divisions, the party seeks to reach out to institutions and organisations with which farmers are associated,” Pathak said. UP BJP general secretary Govind Narain Shukla said that the party’s outreach to farmers will be parallel to the one planned by the state government. “We would be setting up LED screens in maximum possible divisions so that farmers who get assembled can listen to the PM’s message,” he said.

The Times of India

2020-12-23

Lucknow