Assembly Elections 2021: Farmers to take fight against farm laws to poll-bound states

After spending three months on the borders of Delhi, farmers agitating against Modi government's agricultural reforms have decided to open a new front against the BJP in election-bound states of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Leaders of farmer unions, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, have been drawing up plans to make the three farm laws an election issue, particularly in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, where they believe that their voice could resonate with the voters.

“We will take our fight to the poll-bound states and ask voters to defeat those supporting the three farm laws,” Kulwant Singh Sandhu, leader of the Jamhuri Kisan Sabha, told DH.

Read: Three months on, how farmers galvanised a protest movement

He said of the five states going for polls, the farmers were expecting a good response to the demand for the repeal of farm laws in two states – Tamil Nadu and West Bengal which had witnessed farmers' movements in the past.

“Elsewhere, the issue of unemployment and condition of tea garden workers will be a key issue in Assam,” Sandhu said adding that the farmers' unions were yet to plan to reach out to the north-eastern state.

The farmers' agitation began on the borders of the national capital on November 26 with the primary demand for the repeal of the three farm laws and shelving of the amendments to the Electricity Act.

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The farmers have held 11 rounds of talks with the Modi government, which has rejected the demand for the repeal of the laws but offered to suspend their implementation for 18 months as they try to convince the protestors of the benefits of the reforms.

BJP is seeking to make inroads in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu while retaining power in Assam.

The farmers are also planning the next stage of their three-month-old agitation which has thinned out over the past couple of weeks with a large number of protestors going back to the villages to tend to their fields.

A meeting of the farmers' unions is scheduled for Sunday to chalk out the future strategy with an eye on the resumption of Parliament's budget session on March 8.