‘They follow us everywhere’: Ahead of civic polls, Punjab BJP leaders face farmers’ anger

Its seven days to the Punjab civic polls, and senior BJP Jalandhar chief Ramesh Sharma is in a quandary. “They follow us everywhere,” he says.
In 2015, the then ruling Akali-Dal BJP mix had swept the civic polls, with the BJP outperforming its senior companion. This time, the BJP has not been capable of finding candidates for two-thirds of the seats, nor to marketing campaign in the remainder. As the protesters at Delhi’s borders press on, Punjab BJP leaders are nervously watching the “pakka dharnas” outdoors houses of greater than 30 of them — unceasing for 4 months, persevering with day and night time, drawing folks from as much as 40 km away, organised by farm unions, beneath tents that may maintain 200 folks. The banners on the websites demand that the “black” farm legal guidelines be repealed, ask why farmers are being referred to as terrorists, and exhort: ‘Aao saare Dilli chaliye (Let’s all go to Delhi)’.

The BJP has hardly stirred out for campaigning, for worry of protesters surrounding their venues. Many BJP leaders have stop — over 20 of them in January alone — together with the one Sikh face within the social gathering’s core committee within the state, Malwinder Singh Kang. Partymen have eliminated the BJP flag from their automobiles, and examine farmers’ protest plans earlier than leaving houses, says a senior BJP chief.
A plan for Tiranga Yatras throughout Punjab to spotlight the January 26 violence in Delhi — which briefly gave the federal government hope of placing the farm leaders on the backfoot — stands scuppered.
If BJP ‘shameless enough to hold polls’ as farmers sit at Delhi borders, they’ll guarantee BJP stays confined at dwelling, protesters in Punjab say.
“Protesters gherao us whenever they see us,” says Sharma, former BJP district president of Jalandhar and in-charge of the civic elections at Sunam in district Sangrur, blaming the Congress. In Sunam itself, pakka dharnas are on outdoors the residences of BJP district president (rural) Rishipal Khera and social gathering state government member Vinod Gupta.
To be held on February 14, the civic polls to 2,302 seats in eight municipal firms and 109 municipal councils/nagar panchayats would be the first reflection of the anger towards the BJP over the brand new farm legal guidelines. Long-time ally Akali Dal isn’t round to fend it off, having cut up from the BJP over the legal guidelines. Moreover, the Akali Dal too is feeling the warmth, regardless of its makes an attempt to distance itself from the legal guidelines. People are additionally offended with the ruling Congress for going forward with the polls when farmers are away protesting. The Aam Aadmi Party, the principle opposition social gathering in Punjab, carries little punch following desertions.
Among senior BJP leaders, Punjab state president Ashwani Sharma has been dealing with protests since October (he has truncated public appearances now). Harjit Singh Grewal, the most important Sikh face within the Punjab BJP after Kang stop, who’s a part of the social gathering panel speaking to farmers, is dealing with a “social boycott” since mid-December after he referred to as farmers “urban Naxals”.
Says a Dhanaula villager, Mohinder Singh, “No one will take Grewal’s village land on contract for farming. We challenge him to contest an election even to the Municipal Council.”
On January 18, on a name by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, that’s spearheading the farmers’ protest at Delhi borders, mega rallies have been held at Dhanaula village, in addition to the Kathera village in Fazilka of Surjit Kumar Jyani, the chairman of the eight-member BJP panel speaking to farmers.
Grewal and Jyani have spent most of their time since November 28 in Delhi, after they have been summoned by Home Minister Amit Shah to coordinate with the unions. On January 5, they met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after which Jyani referred to as the farmer agitation “leaderless” and stated Modi had requested for one identify whom all of them trusted.
In Rampura Phul space of Bathinda, a pakka dharna outdoors the manufacturing facility of Makhan Jindal, a BJP state government committee member, on since mid-October, was lifted on January 10 solely after Jindal resigned from the social gathering.

Kang tells The Sunday Express, “I quit when I saw the party was not serious about the issue. In the core committee meetings, the BJP leaders were not concerned. They were not even aware how many farmer unions were there in Punjab, what was their background.”
At Tej Enclave in Patiala, Jaswinder Singh, the block president of the BKU (Ugrahan), tells protesters assembled outdoors senior BJP chief Yogesh Khatri’s dwelling that for the reason that social gathering is “shameless enough to contest the civic polls when making farmers sit out in the cold near Delhi”, “it’s our duty to ensure its leaders too remain at home by defeating them”.
Around 240 km away, Parkash Singh of the Kirti Kisan Union, tells protesters at Amritsar’s Canadi Avenue, outdoors the home of Rajya Sabha MP Shwait Malik, that the federal government was a part of the “larger conspiracy” behind the Red Fort incident to discredit the farmers.
Parkash has been coming to the dharna every day for 4 months, from his village Thothian, round 40 km away. Jaswinder has been current on the web site for 45 days regardless of a fractured arm. The locals have donated beddings and different necessities. Gurdwaras provide meals. Even some BJP activists are serving meals on the facet, the protesters say.
At Yogesh Khatri’s home in Patiala, the pakka dharna started round a fortnight in the past. “We have been able to get only 11 candidates against 21 seats in the Samana Municipal Council and 10 against 17 seats in the Nabha council. At several places, our leaders are not contesting on party symbol,” Khatri says.
Careful to not provoke the farmers, he provides, “They have all the right to protest but they are getting too personal.”
Among the BJP leaders contesting as an Independent is Bathinda BJP chief Vinod Binta. He says he had no alternative; “protesters are not allowing us to hold election meetings”.
The BJP’s makes an attempt at reconciliation have failed. Says Harjit Singh Jitha of the Punjab Kisan Sangharsh Committee, “Shwait Malik met us once. But our demand is that the laws be cancelled… On that, he was helpless.”
Protesters have additionally vented anger on the Akali Dal, with slogans forcing its chief Sukhbir Badal to desert a speech on farm legal guidelines on the Fatehgarh Sahib gurdwara on December 28. He needed to be escorted out by way of the again gate.
Mystery surrounds the February 3 assault on Sukhbir’s car in his constituency Fazilka, whereas he was accompanying a celebration candidate for submitting of nomination for the civic polls. While the social gathering blamed the Congress, one other FIR names the Akali Dal’s personal males.
Sukhbir and spouse Harsimrat Badal repeatedly stress that they have been the one NDA companions to have opposed the farm legal guidelines, and that they gave up a ministerial submit and stop the alliance on the problem. Sukhbir informed The Sunday Express he had warned the BJP to not go forward with the farm legal guidelines “not once, but many times”. Denying that the farmer anger left them with no alternative, the Akali chief says, “We are a 100-year-old party, we do not work under compulsions. We represent farmers and it is our duty to work for their welfare.”
The Congress, led by an aggressive Amarinder Singh, sees an opportunity to win again the Hindu vote that shifted to the BJP in Punjab, between the 2017 Assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha polls. With the BJP blaming the Congress for the protests, Punjab PCC chief Sunil Jakhar says farmers ought to give a befitting reply to the BJP “politically” and “democratically”. Defending the choice to carry the civic polls, Jakhar says, “Otherwise the BJP would have targeted the state saying polls were postponed due to law and order problems… The BJP has been calling farmers Khalistanis and Maoists. It would have exploited the situation. We do not want to give the Centre a chance to make a J&K in Punjab.”
In non-public, BJP leaders declare the Congress’s hopes of an enormous win are misplaced, contending that BJP leaders contesting as Independents are its personal males. They additionally declare city voters are with the social gathering, particularly in Hoshiarpur, Pathankot, Abohar and Bathinda districts.
Among these holding an in depth vigil outdoors BJP houses, particularly after the January 26 violence, is the police. But ACP, North Amritsar, Sarabjit Singh doesn’t count on a repeat. “The farmers have not indulged in any violence in the past four months,” he says.
‘Watching who will be first to move out of home’
Sitting at his Chandigarh residence, a Haryana minister says it’s a ready recreation. “We are watching who will be the first to move out of home.”
Ever since protesting farmers held off 1,500 policemen, armed with teargas, to make sure Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s helicopter couldn’t land in Karnal on January 10, the BJP’s plans of holding public conferences in help of the farm legal guidelines first went out of the window. Now, as anger mounts owing to the January 26 violence, social gathering leaders are cautious of leaving dwelling, particularly in districts the place farmer agitation is the strongest.
It’s not simply the ruling BJP that has been hemmed in. In a worse state of affairs is its companion JJP and Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala — whose political relevance attracts on great-grandfather Devi Lal Chautala’s legacy as certainly one of India’s tallest farmer leaders. The farmers have introduced they gained’t enable any public conferences of BJP-JJP leaders.
The CM has had his Kaimla venue vandalised and his cavalcade compelled again with black flags in Ambala; Chautala has had a short lived helipad in his constituency Jind uprooted to thwart his arrival; minister Kamlesh Dhanda has had her cavalcade chased in Kaithal; the BJP has needed to cancel coaching classes and a protest on the Satlej-Yamuna Link situation in Fatehabad as farmers referred to as it a bid to divide them alongside Punjab and Haryana traces. Outside many villages, boards bar entry of BJP and JJP leaders.
Says Raj Kumar, a farmer from Jind district, “BJP, JJP leaders can come out only if they hide their identity, wearing masks.”
Former state BJP president Subhash Barala admits farmers are gripped with “fear”. But provides, “It has been nursed in their minds.”
Among the BJP leaders who’ve confronted the brunt of the ire is Haryana Education Minister Kanwar Pal Gujjar. BKU chief Jasbir Singh Mamumajra says Gujjar “spoke too much against agitating farmers”.
Gujjar claims the protests on their very own don’t have an effect on him. “They are targeting me as I have been in favour of the laws. I don’t have a problem with black flags… How will democracy survive if there is no opposition? But opposition should be in a certain manner.”
BJP sources say they’re relying on the truth that the following polls are in 2024, by when the farmer protests could also be outdated information. However, the JJP can hardly financial institution on that alone. The different department of Devi Lal’s household, represented by the INLD, scored a degree not too long ago when its lone MLA, Abhay Chautala, resigned in help of the farmers. With Dushyant having introduced earlier that he can be “the first to resign” if he couldn’t get each farmer their MSP, Abhay says, “Those who used to talk of resigning citing the principles of Chaudhary Devi Lal are now forced to remain at home under security cover.”
Dushyant’s youthful brother Digvijay, fielding questions for the JJP on the farm legal guidelines, has tried to include the harm. On January 29, after Uttar Pradesh BKU chief Rakesh Tikait’s crying video from Delhi’s Ghazipur border spurred a recent spherical of protests, Digvijay stated, “Rakesh Tikait is son of the country’s great leader Baba Mahender Tikait. It is totally wrong to call him anti-national.”

While the Congress is hoping to regain misplaced floor within the state on the again of the farmer agitation, for now farmer leaders are holding all events out. Senior Congress chief Randeep Singh Surjewala confronted hooting when he went to a protest venue in Kaithal district on December 8; whereas a video additionally went viral purportedly displaying hooting for former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda at Delhi’s Tikri border. Son and MP Deepender Hooda denied this, including, “This is a non-political agitation. The farmer is its captain and hero.”
Haryana farmer leaders declare inspiration from their Punjab counterparts, particularly after the Red Fort violence. “It was a trap to puncture the agitation, but people soon realised what it was about,” says Balraj Goyat, 50, who attended the large Kisan Mahapanchayat held in Jind on February 3.
Khap chief Tek Ram Kandela, seen as a BJP supporter, informed the Mahapanchayat that the BJP was in charge for the Red Fort incident. “I am a farmer first,” he explains to The Sunday Express. “Then the member of a party.”