JOIN USBhartiya Kisan Union splits, Tikait brothers 'removed'
The Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), which led the year-long farmer agitation against the now-scrapped farm laws on the Delhi border, led by brothers Naresh and Rakesh Tikait, split on Sunday with a group of its leaders forming a new outfit which they called BKU (non-political).
The 'non-political' breakaway group claimed to be the real BKU and replaced president Naresh and national spokesman Rakesh with their low leaders at a meeting here.
Incidentally, the split was announced on the occasion of the 11th death anniversary of Mahendra Singh Tikait, who had formed the BKU.
''Ours is the real BKU. The BKU led by Naresh Tikait and Rakesh Tikait had turned into a political organisation. We tried to persuade the Tikait brothers not to pursue any political agenda but they did not heed our advice,'' Rajesh Singh Chauhan, the newly appointed president of the BKU (non-political), told reporters. The breakaway group also appointed Dharmendra Malik as its national spokesman.
''We will not align with any political party and will take up the issues concerning the farmers,'' Chauhan added.
Chauhan claimed that the Tikait brothers repeatedly asked him and his supporters to support a particular political party in the recently concluded assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. ''We refused to do so,'' he added. He said that the Tikait brothers were ''isolated' and that a majority of the workers were with the breakaway group.
According to sources, Rakesh Tikait had tried to avert the split and had camped in the state capital for two days to persuade Chauhan and other leaders not to form a new outfit but to no avail.