Farmers Movement Archive

Ambala MC polls: Farmers’ stir likely to have impact on results

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s recent visit here, when he was shown black flags and his cavalcade was blocked by farmers near Maharaja Agrasen Chowk, could be indicative of rising anger over the three farm legislations and the ongoing agitation, which are likely to become key issues in the municipal corporation (MC) elections scheduled for December 27. Instead of nine villages under MC limits previously, now 21 villages will vote for the mayor and their ward candidates.A tour of villages reveal that most people feel the farmer protests are justified and will have an impact on the elections. The CM’s visit to Ambala could have hurt the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) chances, feels a farmer from Ghel village (ward 11) Raghubir Singh, 60. “Everyone knows about the agitation at Delhi’s borders, but the protests when the CM arrived here have sent a message to every local of the anger of the farmers. All of us have seen videos of the protests. We are BJP supporters but my cousins visit the protest sites regularly at the border,” says Raghubir Singh.Octogenarian Gurvinder Singh from Sonda village (ward 18), who has been farming for more than six decades, says people like him will support the party that talks about the farmers, but not the BJP-Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) coalition. “Why is the government so determined to push the laws on us? If I have built a house and my family members don’t like it, I will demolish it. This should happen for the farm laws too,” he adds.Though sewage waste accumulating in the area where he lives is Balraj’s immediate concern, this labourer from Hira Nagar (ward 1) says his community is aware of the protests.The issue hits home because Ambala shares borders with Punjab, say political analysts.Dr Kushar Pal, head of department, political science, at Karnal’s Dyal Singh College, says the impact of the agitation is likely to be felt only in the rural belt.“The state president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union Gurnam Singh Charuni, who is fronting the agitation in Haryana, has a considerable presence in Ambala, Yamunanagar and Kurukshetra. So I think that there could be an impact, but it won’t be significant and will be limited to the villages as the major vote share of these elections remain in the urban belt,” says Pal, who is also state coordinator of Lokniti – Centre for the Study of Developing Areas. Madan Mohan, sarpanch of Ghel, which will be voting for the first time in the elections, said most of the locals are farmers with small landholdings who are aware of the stir.Meanwhile, even as the BJP-JJP combine faces flak for the farm laws, opposition parties such as the Congress, Haryana Democratic Front (HDF) and Haryana Jan Chetna Party (HJP), are trying to capitalise on the issue.Dr Sanjay Sharma, whose wife Dr Vandana Sharma is the mayoral candidate for the BJP-JJP coalition, said it could have an impact on the polls, hastening to add: “I don’t think all the farmers are angry and most think that the elections have nothing to do with the agitation.”Former ministers and MLAs Nirmal Singh from the HDF and Venod Sharma from the HJP have accepted that the farmers’ issue has emerged as an important election issue. While Sharma says that the impact will be clear after the results, Nirmal Singh claims, “We’ll definitely gain votes from the rural belt. I think the government will fall soon.”

Hindustan Times

25-12-2020

Chandigarh