As politics heats up in poll-bound Gujarat, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait sets course for the state

Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 31

BKU leader Rakesh Tikait, who managed to give a fresh lease of life to farmers’ agitation after the January 26 violence with ‘mahapanchayats’, is now heading towards Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, which is due for polls next year. 

Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat are the two big ones on the country’s electoral map in 2022 with as many as seven states, including Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Himachal Pradesh, lined up through the year.

Boosted by its performance in local bodies, the Aam Aadmi Party, too, has set eyes on the Gujarat polls, expected sometime in December.

But speculations are high that they could be “brought forward if the BJP does well in the West Bengal elections”. It is in this type of energised political scenario that Tikait is entering the scene via farmers’ agitation. 

Though according to BJP leaders their performance in the last local bodies elections was a proof of farmers’ support for the three central bills that farmer organisations and opposition parties (including AAP and Congress) are opposing, farmers organisations claim otherwise.  

Pointing to last Friday (March 26), the day of the nationwide bandh called by Samyukt Kisan Morcha when BKU General Secretary Yudhvir Singh was “picked up” by the police in Ahmedabad city while addressing a press conference, they call it a “sign of growing discomfort” in the ruling dispensation of the state.   

According to the BKU programme, Tikait will be in Gujarat on April 5 and 6 for ‘kisan samvaad’, farmers dialogue, in Palanpur and Bardoli. Alongside, he will also be visiting temples, gurdwaras and Gandhi Ashram. Tikait has been meeting groups of supporters from Gujarat and Maharashtra at Ghazipur where he has been camping along since November, last

Recently, Gujarat Forest and Tribal Affairs Minister Raman Patkar too was  quoted as saying that “environment is conducive for early polls in Gujarat at a time when the BJP is winning everywhere”.

“The party won 90 per cent seats in the local bodies polls, as well as all six municipal corporations, 75 out of 81 municipalities, all 31 district panchayats and 196 out of 231 taluka panchayats,” he said.

Preparing for elections, the Gujarat unit of AAP has also launched a state-wide “sadasyata abhiyaan”.