New Delhi, Feb 28 (IANS) In view of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh slated for next year, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday tried to woo the 'Jat' community in the western part of the state while addressing a Kisan Mahapanchayat in Meerut.
The AAP's Mahapanchayat came months after the party had announced to contest the UP Assembly polls next year.
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Kejriwal's address focused mainly on the ongoing farmers' protest against the three Central farm laws. The AAP convenor reiterated his party's slogan calling the three farm laws as "death warrants" for the protesting farmers.
In a gesture of his party's support, the Delhi Chief Minister had torn the farm laws' documents in the Assembly in December last year, terming the laws as "death warrants".
Amid slogans of 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan' and 'Kisan Eklta Jindabad', Kejriwal said that the protesting farmers have faced atrocities which were not meted out even during the British rule. He also accused the BJP of making false cases against protesters.
"Our farmers can be anything but traitors. But the BJP has called them terrorists and Khalistanis," Kejriwal said. Through his speech, he also tried to woo the villagers in the western part of UP reiterating his own line - 'at present, one son of a farmer is at the border and another at Delhi's border'.
He also accused the BJP of orchestrating the Republic Day violence at the Red Fort and extended his support to the protesters, claiming that AAP has provided civic and WiFi facilities at the protest sites in Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders, where scores of farmers have been sitting on protest for nearly 100 days.
"The Centre is behind the Red Fort violence and not the farmers. It misguided the farmers who did not know Delhi roads. More than 250 farmers have died in these three months, but the Centre has done nothing about it," Kejriwal said.
--IANS
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