Will not vote for BJP, JJP, announces farm union

Karnal, May 18

Farmers, under the banner of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Sir Chhotu Ram), held a “kisan panchayat” at Jaat Dharamshala and announced that they would not vote for the BJP and the JJP in the upcoming elections. They said they would visit village to village to make an appeal to farmers in this regard across the state.

“We will oppose the candidates of the BJP and the JJP across the state and will meet farmers and people, urging them not to vote for them,” said Bahadur Singh Mehla, spokesperson for the BKU (Sir Chhotu Ram).

Accusing the previous BJP-JJP government of “using bullets and lathis” on farmers, they said it had stopped the farmers from entering Haryana for going towards Delhi and now the time had come to “avenge the atrocities” on farmers.

Jagdeep Aulakh, a senior leader of the union, said farmers had been exploited by the BJP-JJP government in the past 4.5 years. He also highlighted the issue of deaths of farmers during their agitation at the Delhi borders and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised doubling the income of farmers in 2014, but 10 years after the promise, the farmers are still struggling to get the minimum support price (MSP).

“In the last 10 years, farmers’ income has not doubled. Instead, farmers have been burdened with debt,” said Aulakh.