Punjab results on June 4 will stun everyone: PM Modi

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, May 26

Less than a week to go for the voting in Punjab, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an exclusive interview to The Tribune on Sunday, said the results in the state would stun everyone and declared that his government was willing to go one step ahead for farmers.

On pact with akalis...

The decision to part ways with SAD was well-thought-out. Many Akalis had expressed despair over the state of affairs in the party to me. Those who think of the progress of Punjab tried to reform SAD, but failed. It was not possible for our party to remain silent while the people were unhappy. Narendra Modi, PM

Describing The Tribune question on ongoing farm protests along the border of Punjab and Haryana as “very important”, the PM said having increased the value and volume of crops under the minimum support price (MSP) regime in 10 years of the NDA rule, his government was “willing to go one step ahead for farmers”.

“We want the willing farmers to embrace crop diversification and are ready to give them the necessary monetary and policy security cover. Also, crop diversification is an idea which has been supported by other parties too in the past. They have backtracked on it for political reasons, but the cost of politics should be something other than the future of farmers in Punjab and Haryana. The MSP is not going anywhere,” the PM assured the farmers, who have been preventing BJP candidates from campaigning in the state.

On the Punjab election scenario, the PM said, “The results and the mood of the people of Punjab will stun everyone.” “The results will stun you but remember, I told you first that the BJP is rising steadily in Punjab,” Modi said. Asked to share his assessment of polls in the state, where the BJP was, in a first, contesting alone after severing ties with the erstwhile ally SAD, the PM said, “Excellent.”

He said the decision to part ways with SAD was “well-thought-out” and revealed that many Akali workers had expressed their despair over the state of affairs in the party to him. “Those who think of the progress of Punjab tried to reform SAD but their efforts failed. It was not possible for our party to remain silent while the people were unhappy.... We took this decision (of separation from SAD) after much thought,” said PM Modi.

SAD and the BJP first allied for the Assembly poll in 1997. The alliance ended after SAD walked out of the NDA in September 2020, protesting the farm laws which were later withdrawn.

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