Punjab: Stop electioneering for now, farm bodies to ask political parties at Friday meeting

Chandigarh, September 9

Farmer bodies protesting the Centre’s agriculture laws have called a meeting of political parties on Friday to press them not to carry out electioneering till the Punjab Assembly polls are announced.

The BJP has not been called for the meeting.

The Punjab Assembly polls are due early next year.

Confirming it, Jamhoori Kisan Sabha general secretary Kulwant Singh Sandhu on Thursday said farmer bodies have convened a meeting of all political parties here on Friday.

He said the BJP, which supported the three farm laws, has not been invited to the meeting.

He said representatives of political parties will be asked not to indulge in electioneering or hold political rallies till the elections are announced as it could hurt the ongoing farmer struggle.

The Shiromani Akali Dal on Thursday said party president Sukhbir Singh Badal has deputed Balwinder Singh Bhundar, Prem Singh Chandumajra, Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal and Daljit Singh Cheema to participate in the meeting.

Aam Aadmi Party MLA Kultar Singh Sandhwan said party representatives will participate in the meeting called by farmer bodies on Friday. 

The SAD on September 6 had invited all 32 farmer organisations to constitute a committee to hold talks with it to remove all “misgivings” regarding its poll outreach programme ‘Gal Punjab Di’.

The SAD had formed a committee to hold talks with farmers to reiterate Akalis’ “unflinching support” for their agitation against the Centre’s three farm laws.

The Akalis’ move had come after a group of farmers allegedly tried to force their way into the venue of a SAD event, where Badal was speaking, in Punjab’s Moga district recently. After this incident, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal had put on hold for six days his party’s poll outreach campaign “Gal Punjab Di”. —PTI