New Delhi: The farmers on Sunday protested against BJP candidate Dinesh Babbu in Batala and party leader Arvind Khanna in Barnala in Punjab as the party leaders continued to face their wrath over their unmet demands. The BJP candidates and leaders have been facing protests from the farmers who have shown them black flags when they were campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls.
Party candidates Hans Raj Hans from Faridkot seat, Taranjit Singh Sandhu from Amritsar and Preneet Kaur from Patiala have already witnessed the anger of the farmers. In Fatehgarh Churian in Batala, a group of farmers on Sunday raised slogans against Babbu, who is the BJP nominee from Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat.
Police even tried to stop the protesters from heading towards the venue where Babbu and the BJP supporters were holding an election related programme. One of the protesters at Fatehgarh Churian said they will continue to oppose the BJP leaders. Reacting to the protest, BJP candidate Babbu said it was only his party which can resolve their issues while the other political outfits will use them for their vested interests.
We are with the farmers and I am also a farmer. Their issues can be resolved through dialogue, said Babbu. In another incident, BJP leader Arvind Khanna faced the farmers' protest in Barnala where he had gone to campaign. A heavy police force was deployed and barricades were raised. One of the woman protesters slammed the BJP government for not allowing the farmers to go towards Delhi and using force against them.
Another protester said they came to hold the protest against Khanna in a peaceful manner but the police personnel did not allow them to move towards the venue. Khanna, however, alleged that it was not farmer outfits but the workers of the AAP who were orchestrating such protests. The farmers are either in their fields (for wheat harvesting) or mandis (for selling wheat).
These outfits are the people of (chief minister) Bhagwant Mann and these are not farmers, alleged Khanna, adding that the Modi government stands by the farmers. Meanwhile, BJP candidate from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat Taranjit Singh Sandhu, who has also been facing farmers' ire, said he belongs to a farming family.
He said he emphasised on increasing the income of the farmers. I am campaigning and I will continue to do so, he said. The farmers under the banner of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) have already said they will oppose the BJP and will ask the people to punish the saffron party in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The farmers owing allegiance to various farm outfits are upset with the BJP-led Centre for not accepting their demands, including a law on minimum support price.
They were also angry over not being allowed to head towards Delhi, forcing them to camp at Shambhu and Khanauri border points of Punjab and Haryana. The SKM (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) are spearheading the 'Delhi Chalo' march by the farmers to press the government to accept their demands which includes that the Centre should give a legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the crops.
The farmers have been staying put at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 when their march was stopped by the security forces. The polling for the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab will be held in the last phase on June 1.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)