Jagdeep Singh says he received offers of an Assembly poll ticket from both the Samajwadi Party and the Congress but turned down both.

Jagdeep, son of one of the Lakhimpur Kheri farmers mowed down by a jeep belonging to Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni, would rather contest the 2024 general election — against the BJP minister himself.

“The SP (Samajwadi Party) and the Congress insisted that I contest from Dhaurahra but I told them I would not fight a small battle,” slain farmer Nachhatar Singh’s elder son said.

“(I told them) ‘Give me a ticket for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 — I will fight directly against Teni’. If I have to fight, I shall fight properly.”

Teni, Union minister of state for home, is a second-time BJP Lok Sabha member from Kheri.

Four farmers, including Nachhatar, and a journalist had died in Tikunia, Lakhimpur Kheri, on October 3 last year when a convoy led by Teni’s jeep had ploughed into a group of farmers protesting an alleged threat by the minister.

Teni’s son Ashis Mishra, the main accused who was allegedly in the jeep, is in jail custody. A special investigation team has termed the incident a “pre-planned” murder.

Jagdeep, 31, a resident of Namdar Purwa village, said no one in his family had ever been in politics and that he was “not a supporter of anyone — SP, BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) or Congress”.

“At present we are standing with farmer leader Tejinder Singh Virk in the elections. He is fighting our battle as well. Wherever he is fighting from, we will stand with him,” he said.

Virk was injured in the October 3 incident. He was recently seen with Samajwadi president Akhilesh Yadav at a news conference in Lucknow.

Jagdeep thanked the Opposition parties and said that without their intervention, the Tikunia incident would have been passed off as an accident.

“If the Opposition had not stood up and there was no pressure from the farmers’ unions, no action would have taken place in this matter,” he said.

Jagdeep added: “Teni not being removed as Union minister is a very big election issue. The government is not removing Teni for fear of losing Brahmin votes. As long as he remains in the post, we cannot get justice.”

Asked how big the Tikunia carnage was in the context of the Assembly elections, Jagdeep said: “Only time will tell. But it’s certain that if people do not stand united against this incident in the elections, the farmers will be crushed under the jeep. Those with such a mentality will be encouraged.”

Two of the slain farmers — Nachhatar of Dhaurahra and Lovepreet Singh of Palia — belonged to Lakhimpur Kheri district. The other two dead farmers were from neighbouring Bahraich.