Farmer unions that were part of Samyukt Kisan Morcha to contest Punjab Assembly elections

Ruchika M. Khanna
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 24

In a move that was expected for long, farmer unions that led the struggle against the three farm laws will be contesting the forthcoming assembly elections in Punjab.

The unions are likely to contest the polls in alliance with Aam Aadmi Party.

Information gathered by The Tribune shows that seven unions that were part of Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) have decided to abstain from throwing their hat in the state’s political arena. These include Kirti Kisan Union, Krantikari Kisan Union, BKU Krantikari, Doaba Sangharsh Committee, BKU Sidhupur, Kisan Sangharsh Committee and Jai Kisan Andolan. The other 25 unions that were part of the SKM will be contesting the polls.

BKU Ugrahan, the largest farmer union in Punjab, was not a part of SKM, and had already said that they would not contest the polls.

Inderjit Singh Kot Buddha, president of Kisan Sangharsh Committee, told The Tribune that his union will not be contesting the polls as they did not want to deviate from the core issues concerning farmers. “I told the other leaders that politics could become our weakness, hence we would not want to be a part of the political forum,” he said, adding that they would also not oppose the other unions who contest polls. Senior Vice-President of Kirti Kisan Union, Rajinder Singh Deepsinghwala, told The Tribune that their union will be holding a meeting of its members on December 31, and based on their feedback, will take a final call, though as of now they had decided to stay away.

Decisions regarding tapping their clout in the year-long morcha for taking a political plunge were finalised during a meeting of all 32 Kisan unions, held at Mullanpur near Ludhiana on Friday. Since seven unions have decided not to contest, they have reportedly urged the others not to use the banner of SKM for this political adventure. A meeting of the remaining 25 unions is learnt to be scheduled at Chandigarh on Saturday, where the decision will be announced.

Farmer Union leaders told The Tribune that of the 32 unions represented by their leaders in today’s meeting, at least 13 unions were keen on forming a truck with Aam Aadmi Party. “AAP, which is in power in Delhi, had facilitated the farmer struggle on borders of Delhi, which is the basis of the new “love between the farmer leaders and the party,” a leader, present in the meeting and favouring the alliance told The Tribune. It may be mentioned that there has been much speculation of union leaders Balbir Singh Rajewal and Harmeet Singh Kadian contesting the poll on AAP ticket.

Among other things discussed in on Friday’s meeting were the offer made by Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi to set up a memorial for martyred farmers, which the Unions want to be near Ludhiana. The Unions also discussed the auditing of all funds of SKM.

Interestingly, Gurnam Singh Chaduni, who formed his own political party last week, was also approached by two leaders of SKM, to jointly form a common Farmers Forum. However, the two sides could not come to a conclusion to contest the polls together.