Rakesh Tikait says farmers will 'boycott' BJP in UP polls

Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Monday said that the farmers would 'boycott' the BJP in the forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Speaking to reporters here, Tikait said that the farmer leaders would be visiting every corner of UP and Uttarakhand and appeal to the people not to support the BJP and its alliance partners in the upcoming assembly elections.

''Despite our repeated appeals, the BJP government at the Centre has not repealed the new farm laws.....the farmers, therefore, will boycott the BJP and its allies in the polls,'' he added.

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Tikait said that farmers would organise 'mahapanchayats' in every division in UP in the next few months. ''Like Punjab and Haryana, the two poll-bound states of UP and Uttarakhand will also become centres of our agitation,'' he said.

The BKU leader accused the Yogi Adityanath government in the state of backtracking on its promise to clear the dues of the cane farmers and purchase the wheat produced by them.

''The prices of cane have not been increased in the past four years...there have also been irregularities in wheat purchase in the state,'' he alleged. "Electricity is the costliest in UP. Inflation has adversely hit the people. The stray cattle has also become a huge problem for the farmers,'' Tikait added.

Thousands of farmers have been on an indefinite dharna on the UP border demanding withdrawal of the new farm laws.