Farmers’ unrest may spell trouble for BJP in election-bound UP

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 29

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a renovated complex of the Jallianwala Bagh memorial and paid homage to martyrs of April 13, 1919 massacre, Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait today compared Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar with General Dyer.

Tikait tweeted saying the “behaviour of Haryana CM Khattar was like General Dyer” and that “brutality of the Haryana Police on farmers will not be tolerated”. Significantly, while attacking the Haryana Government for yesterday’s lathicharge on farmers, the farmer leader from western Uttar Pradesh also added that ‘kisan sabka hisab karega’.

Worries in bjp camp

• While BJP leaders insist the party is “doing well and everything is under control”, observers are sensing “worries in the saffron camp” regarding the coming polls
• Recently, a BJP MLA’s car was allegedly attacked in western Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar by “people protesting the Centre’s contentious farm laws” and sources indicate that saffron leaders may face similar protests while campaigning in rural parts

Brutality won’t be tolerated: Tikait

• Members of farming and rural communities in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, especially western parts, share close ties
• BKU leader Rakesh Tikait compared Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar with General Dyer over lathicharge on farmers and said “brutality of the Haryana Police on farmers will not be tolerated”

With members of farming/rural communities in the two neighbouring states sharing what is popularly known as “roti-beti ka rishta” (very close ties), “farmers’ unrest in Haryana may spell more trouble for the ruling BJP in poll-bound UP than it may have anticipated,” according to some observers.

Notably, Jat leaders, including Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, have already criticised the police action amid the mounting Opposition’ attack against the Khattar government and the demand for a strict action against the officer caught on camera asking the police to “break farmers’ heads”.

For the BJP leadership facing flak over “mismanagement” in UP during the second wave of Covid and trying to sooth upset farmers in western UP with better SAP for sugarcane, the happenings in Haryana could not have come at a more inappropriate time, the observers believe. Some independent surveys have suggested a dip in fortunes of the ruling party in the politically critical state. According to these surveys, BJP’s ratings have dropped by almost 10-12% in terms of votes as compared to what it polled in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

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