Farmers Movement Archive

BJP campaign blitz to blunt Oppn bid to ride Kheri in poll

Lucknow: With the Lakhimpur Kheri violence turning into a tipping point of the raging farm protests, BJP is all set to launch a statewide grassroots campaign to neutralize Opposition’s campaign to corner BJP in run-up to polls by “inciting farmers against the ruling dispensation”. The party will kick off the campaign by holding farmer conventions in all districts on Friday, followed by rerun of the event in all 403 assembly seats on Saturday and then in 1,918 organisational divisions on Sunday. The exercise will culminate with ‘gram chaupals’ in all 56,000 gram panchayats till the month end — a move seen as BJP’s attempt to expose Opposition’s design to make political capital out of Lakhimpur Kheri. Party leaders said, all key Opposition leaders, including SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have been yearning to score brownie points from the tragedy. “The state government has categorically maintained every person guilty of the crime will be brought to book. Yet Opposition leaders were trying to fan farmers’ sentiments,” he said. Speaking to TOI, UP BJP Kisan Morcha president Kameshwar Singh said, the objective is tell farmers about steps taken by the Centre and the state government for their welfare and “exposing kisan netas who are deliberately trying to discredit the BJP government for their political ends”. Conventions and meetings will be attended by senior state and district BJP functionaries and ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government. “We need to make the farmer community aware of the malicious motive of the Opposition and so-called farmer leaders who are peddling a false and distorted narrative about the Centre and state government,” he said. Singh’s stand comes a day after BKU leader Naresh Tikait said, farmers will continue to protest till junior Union home minister Ajay Mishra Teni is sacked. Teni’s son Ashish has been arrested for his alleged role in the Kheri incident in which eight persons, including four farmers and a journalist were killed after two SUVs ploughed through protesting farmers on October 3. Ashish and his alleged accomplice Ashish Pandey were denied bail by a magistrate’s court on Wednesday. “We are waiting for the report of the single-judge inquiry commission, which was set up by the state government a week ago,” Singh said.

The Times of India

2021-10-15

Lucknow