With Mamata away in Goa, BJP stirs farmers in Bengal

BJP's Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, called for the formation of save-farmer committees in the villages

While West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is on a Goa tour expanding the Trinamool Congress, back home, the BJP has initiated a three-day pro-farmer agitation in Singur with a focus on rural Bengal.

After the agitation, the party’s farmer wing will form farmers’ committees in Bengal’s villages. A delegation with demands will try to meet the chief minister and in absence of a pacifying outcome, there could be a farmers’ march to the state secretariat that houses the CM’s office, agitation organisers have hinted.

The three-day agitation, close to the erstwhile site for Tata’s small-car factory, began on a hastily-put open stage, as confusion prevailed initially on whether the programme will be allowed or obstructed locally.

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Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly and a BJP MLA from Nandigram in south Bengal, called for the formation of save-farmer committees in the villages. An influential leader, he had played a significant role in Nandigram, where locals had collectively protested in 2007 against the proposed acquisition of farmland.

Suvendu, once instrumental in expanding Trinamool’s footprints in southern Bengal had joined the BJP before this year’s assembly elections. He called for intensifying the party’s campaign for highlighting farmers’ plight and rights. Later in the day, he tweeted against his former party, “TMC turned Singur into a graveyard of WB’s aspirations. Were farmers merely stepping stone to power?...”

The Bharatiya Janata Kisan Morcha state president Mahadev Sarkar told DH that a delegation on behalf of farmers will seek an appointment with the chief minister. If this initiative fails to resolve farmers’ issues, then a walk to the state secretariat, Nabanna, will be considered an option.

Sarkar added that the party’s farmers’ wing will reach out to villages and form farmers’ committees to help raise concerns. Sarkar added that a proper stage would be put up for the agitation, for the remaining two days.

A BJP delegation had last week met West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and presented a memorandum with a set of demands. The memorandum claimed that the state “witnessed a number of farmer suicides during the last few days”. It also added that “high prices of crop seeds, fertilisers and black-marketing of same is adding to the misery of farmers”.

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