The Samyukta Kisan Morcha on Tuesday decided to give a call to farmers in all election-bound states to vote against the BJP and its allies to ensure their defeat, choosing Calcutta as the first rally pit stop.
The SKM, the umbrella outfit of protesting farm unions, has made it clear that it would not campaign for any particular party.
The SKM is preparing to try and inflict what farm union leader Yogendra Yadav had described as “vote ki chot” (hurt with votes) on the BJP and its allies in the five poll-set states of Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.
Detailing their plans for the elections after a day-long strategy meeting of the SKM general body at the Singhu border protest site, veteran farmer union leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said: “We will appeal to all farmers not to vote for the BJP and its allies. We will not support any party or campaign for any party, nor will we tell farmers who they should vote for. All we will do is appeal to them not to vote for those who brought the farm laws and have unleashed repression on farmers, and try best to vote in a manner that will ensure the defeat of the BJP and its allies.”
Farm union leaders will be sent to all the five states to address at least one rally organised by their local partners to mobilise opinion. The first such rally will be held in Calcutta on March 12, Rajewal said.
Yadav said Bengal would be the first stop because it goes to the hustings the earliest with the first phase of polling scheduled for March 27.
From Calcutta, the union leaders are expected to go to all constituencies of the state to spread awareness on how the farm laws are detrimental for farmers.
Simultaneously, across the country as harvesting begins and crops head for the markets, the SKM has asked farmers to start picketing the mandis (wholesale markets) to demand a minimum support price (MSP), which the government claims it is committed to giving.
“It is time to hold the government to account over the Prime Minister’s claim that ‘MSP thi, MSP hai, MSP rahegi’ (MSP was there, MSP is there and MSP will remain). Since harvesting has begun in Karnataka where farmers are getting less than the MSP for chickpeas, ragi and groundnut, the ‘MSP Dilao’ (Give MSP) programme will be launched on March 5 in Karnataka at the big mandis in Gulbarga and Chitradurga,” Yadav said.
All India Kisan Sabha leader Hannan Mollah said farmers at the protest sites were making arrangements to ensure that the harvesting of their standing crop went as scheduled while keeping the movement alive.
Dharmendra Malik of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Tikait) said farmers would come and go in rotation to ensure that harvesting and the protest went hand in hand, pointing out that the mobilisation had gathered so much steam that the BJP’s workers were unable to enter villages in Uttar Pradesh to carry out the party’s planned outreach on the farm laws.
The farmers have also decided to firm up the growing solidarity with workers by joining the trade union call for protest action on March 15 against corporatisation and privatisation. Many of the central trade unions have been backing the farmers’ protests whole-heartedly over the past few months.
In order to mark 100 days of the farmers’ protests at Delhi’s borders on March 6, the SKM has given a call for a five-hour blockade of the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway.
Elsewhere, farmers have been asked to express solidarity with those protesting at Delhi’s borders by flying black banners at their houses and offices, besides wearing black bands as a sign of protest.
