Farmers Movement Archive

Uttar Pradesh: Mahapanchayat momentum will drive BJP out, say farmer leaders

MEERUT: The massive turnout at the Muzaffarnagar mahapanchayat of farmers protesting against the Centre’s farm laws, UP’s farmer leaders said, was a sign of political blowback for the government which would dent BJP’s prospects in the 2022 assembly elections. Farmer leaders had on Sunday announced their 'Mission UP and Uttarakhand' to get BJP out of power in the two states going to the polls next year. While doing so, they told TOI, they will not be supporting any party but “exposing BJP”. “The massive participation of farmers from Punjab and Haryana, and the considerable representation from states like Rajasthan and Uttarakhand has galvanised UP’s farmers. The fire will spread in UP,” Gathwala Khap leader Bahawadi Shyam Singh, who presided over Sunday’s mahapanchayat, told TOI. “The farmer will now hurt BJP with his vote.” The farmer unions, which came under the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), are planning more mahapanchayats in the run-up to the polls. “Never before has a government been so rigid even when farmers suffered on the roads for nine months, through winter, summer and rains. Farmers are disturbed by this and that is why they turned up in such huge numbers on Sunday,” said Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) national general secretary Yudhvir Singh. Sunday’s gathering, they said, kicked off what they plan as a series of such meetings. “We are going to host mahapanchayats across UP. It is high time ... especially with elections round the corner in India’s biggest state,” said SKM leader Jagmohan Singh, a Punjab-based farmer. “We received a rousing welcome in UP. People opened up their homes, caste and religion were put aside. This is the kind of unity we saw in a city that was once hit by one of the worst communal riots in the country a few years ago.” While they plan on shaping political opinion, they do not intend to endorse any political party. “Our fight is against governments where BJP is in power,” said Singh. “But we are not going to support any political party. We will only expose BJP … We had gone to West Bengal as well. We did not support Mamata Banerjee but showed BJP up. We are going to do the same here.”

The Times of India

2021-09-07

Meerut