Haryana: BJP, JJP leaders at receiving end of farmers’ protests

Tribune News Service

Pradeep Sharma

Chandigarh, April 17

As the campaigning for the May 25 Lok Sabha elections picks up momentum, the BJP and JJP leaders are increasingly coming under attack from the farmers’ organisations, which are posing them tough questions besides threatening to ‘boycott’ them.

Will make BJP, JJP accountable

The farmers’ unions will make the BJP and the JJP accountable on farm issues in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections as they failed to address the farmers’ concern for over four and a half years when they were in power. — Ramandeep Mann, farm activist

Anger directed against saffron party

The farmers’ anger is directed against the BJP and we are suffering collateral damage on account of various acts of omission and commission of the BJP. — Senior JJP leader

Voters upbeat about modi’s guarantees

The BJP candidates are not facing any protests during campaigning. The party candidates will register victory as the Haryana voters are enthused by Modi’s guarantees. — Bishambar Balmiki, minister

In fact, banners and posters have come up across the state threatening ‘complete boycott’ of the BJP and JJP leaders. In several posters put outside the villages, the farmers’ organisations, including Sanyukt Kisan Morch (Non-Political) and Bharatiya Kisan Union (Shaheed Bhagat Singh) have questioned the ruling BJP on farm issues.

These questions covered a variety of issues, including the inability of the BJP-led government to enact a law on the MSP, arrest of farmers in ‘false’ cases, farm loan waiver, death of young farmer Shubhkaran Singh, delay in justice in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident and scrapping of the Electricity Bill 2023.

Ramandeep Mann, a prominent farm activist from Haryana, said the BJP and its erstwhile ally JJP could not escape tough questions in the run-up to the parliamentary elections. “The farmers’ unions will make the BJP and the JJP accountable on farm issues in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections as they failed to address the farmers’ concern for over four-and-a-half years when they were in power,” he alleged.

Several of the BJP candidates, including Ranjit Singh (Hisar), Ashok Tanwar (Sirsa), Mohan Lal Badoli (Sonepat) and Arvind Sharma (Rohtak), have faced the farmers’ ire during campaigning recently in the Jat-dominated constituencies.

Not only that, the JJP top brass — Ajay Chautala, Dushyant Chautala and Digvijay Chautala — faced angry protests from the irate farmers, who blocked their entry to several villages.

Meanwhile, Haryana Minister Bishambar Balmiki today denied the reports that the BJP candidates were facing protests during campaigning, claiming that the party candidates would register victory as the Haryana voters were enthused by Modi’s guarantees.

However, a senior JJP leader said the JJP leaders were being targeted by the vested interests during protests as the party tried its level best to work for the welfare of all sections of society when it ran the alliance government with the BJP in Haryana. “The farmers’ anger is directed against the BJP and we are suffering collateral damage on account of various acts of omission and commission of the BJP,” he alleged.

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