Rakesh Tikait asks Bengal farmers to not vote for BJP, repeats TMC clarion call 'Khela Hobe' in Nandigram

Farmers, whose protracted agitation on Delhi borders against the three farms laws have so far been futile, have now turned their focus on hurting the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling party at the Centre, where it matters the most: by undermining the party in the pitched battle for West Bengal. Farmer leader and Bharatiya Kisan Union chief Rakesh Tikait, one of those spearheading the about four-month-old farmers’ stir, reached the state during the day to be part of several anti-BJP Mahapanchayats , including one in the key battlefield of Nandigram. Tikait’s outfit has so far denied being associated with any political party, but the message and focus of the campaign were clear as he roared in Bengal: “Don’t Vote for BJP.” BJP party of cheats Alleging that the BJP-led government at the Centre is intent on breaking the backbone of the farmers and their movement, Tikait said it is “anti-people”. “Don’t vote for BJP. If voted to power they will give away your land to big corporates and industries and make you landless. They will hand over the country to big industrialist groups putting your livelihood at stake and in danger,” he said. Tikait also said that the current dispensation was led by a company and not a political party: “If a political party were in power, they would certainly have engaged with (the) farmers and reached a resolution.” Drawing on the moniker ‘company’, he also compared the BJP to the British East India Company which ruled India before Independence. “One company had once ruled Bengal. Do not let this second ‘company’ take roots in this land,” Tikait told the rally in Nandigram. “When they come asking for votes, you ask for a law on MSP first,” Tikait told the gathering. Calling BJP “a party of cheats” which hides its sympathy for the rich, Tikait said, “We will be on the side of those who oppose BJP, those who will stand by the farmers and the poor.” Referring to Nandigram, he said, the land of farmers’ agitation will give a new direction to the movement against the farm bills. On the ongoing farmers’ stir in Delhi, he said the protesters are ready to continue their agitation for a long period as their morale is high. Tikait is also expected to visit Singur, one of the epicentres of anti-farm land acquisition agitation in 2006-07. He, however, said he was not in Bengal to seek votes for any party. The politics of apolitical support Clarifying that the Krishak Mahapanchayat in Bengal is not meant to pledge support to any particular non-BJP party in the state, the Bharatiya Kisan Union chief said, “I am not here to seek votes for a particular party. We are here to issue an emphatic appeal to start the battle against BJP on behalf of the farmers in Bengal.” He was  quoted by India Today  as saying, “We are not going there to ask for votes, but if someone in Bengal or local media will ask us which way the voters should go then we are going to tell them that do not support BJP. Apart from BJP they can vote for any party of their choice.” However, the optics of his visit were tilted heavily in favour of All India Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in West Bengal. Tikait, who was received at the airport by TMC MP Dola Sen, later went to meet other party leaders at Kolkata’s Mayo Road. He also accused the BJP of injuring Mamata’s leg and attacked BJP candidate from Nandigram and TMC turncoat Suvendu Adhikari for changing sides right before elections, according to  India Today . “Don’t give your vote to a bhagoda (turncoat) who was responsible for the accident and injury of a woman,” Tikait was quoted as saying. Tikait said that Mamata is fighting a lone battle in the state like her to Rani Lakshmi Bai, an iconic figure from the First Struggle for Independence that took place in 1857. “In a country where the government is claiming to have big schemes on women empowerment, such kind of attacks should be condemned. The whole country is pained due to the attack on Didi,” he said. Additionally, farmer leaders are preparing for a tractor rally through West Bengal on 5 April. “Modi will travel in a helicopter, we will follow him in tractors,” Tikait was  quoted as saying by The Telegraph . He also apparently repeated chants of Khela Hobe, a TMC clarion call to challenge opponent BJP on the electoral battlefield. The farmer unions’ events came amid an already-volatile political atmosphere, with the BJP and TMC running high-octane campaigns to secure power in the state. While the saffron party is bolstered by the gains made in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and a stream of top TMC leaders either already joined, or, more seeking to join it, the TMC has tried to shape the narrative to show Mamata as “ Bengal’s own daughter ” and the BJP as “outsiders”. Tikait and Yudhvir Singh also attended the mahapanchayats in Kolkata’s Bhowanipore, and in Nandigram on Saturday. Similar events will be held in Singur and Asansol on Sunday, PTI reported. Nandigram and Singur are synonymous with anti-land acquisition movements that catapulted the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC to  power in 2007. Banerjee is contesting from the Nandigram seat in Purba Medinipur district, where she will face her former aide and present BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari. Electoral defeat will ‘force’ BJP to repeal farm laws, says SKM Meanwhile, the SKM issued a statement urging West Bengal farmers to stand against the saffron party, saying that electoral defeat will force the BJP-led government at the Centre to repeal the three farm laws. The BJP should be “taught a lesson”, they added. “We have been on Delhi’s borders for 105 days and protested against the three laws in Punjab before that. Now, we are coming to you,” said the Punjab farm leader Balbir Singh Rajewal. “Farmers are challenging the powers-that-be in the only way that they understand. We are not here to directly intervene in the elections. We don’t have any candidate. We have not formed any political party. We are not supporting any party. We are only saying, please teach the BJP a lesson,” Swaraj India chief Yogendra Yadav was  quoted as saying by The Hindu . “In order to open the ears of the government to the demands of the agitating farmers, there is a need to hurt them in the elections,” he said. Social activist Medha Patkar, who also shared a stage with Tikait in West Bengal, accused the BJP of trying to “sell the country” to a few corporates. She also urged people to exercise their franchise cautiously. Condemning the Centre for “insulting” the farmers’ stir, Patkar said even the British occupiers had not resorted to acts which the present government is indulged in. She also hailed the passage of a resolution against the farm laws in the West Bengal Assembly. Patkar also alleged that the corporates are donating huge amounts to the BJP in the form of electoral bonds. “The farmers cannot afford to give such donations and so their voices are not heard,” she said. With inputs from PTI