Punjab BJP: Amend farm laws or we’ll be routed

By Ajay Jha | NT

New Delhi: With the contentious farm  laws likely to adversely impact the prospects of the  BJP in the coming Assembly polls, a delegation of  Punjab party leaders called  on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday to discuss the farmers’ protest,  upcoming assembly polls  and the Kartarpur corridor.

The Punjab leaders want  the Central government to  expeditiously take a stand  on the farm laws with the  findings of a pre-poll survey  released on Friday predicting that the BJP could be  on the verge of a complete  wipe-out in Punjab. The  situation in the BJP has  constantly remained the  same as a survey conducted  in September too had indicated that the party could  fail to open its account in  the new Punjab assembly  in 2022.

Punjab was the first state  where farmers rose in protest against the three farm  laws passed by Parliament  in last year, allegedly encouraged by then Punjab  CM Capt. Amarinder Singh.  The protesting farmers later tried to march to Delhi  and were stopped on the  Delhi-Haryana border. They  were joined by the farmers  of Haryana. Later on, farmers of UP and Uttarakhand assembled at the Delhi-UP  border. The farmers’ stir  will complete a year later  this month.

The logjam might impact BJP prospects in Punjab, UP and Uttarakhand  in the 2022 new assemblies.  Details of the meeting and  its outcome are not known  yet. The Punjab BJP leaders  have already announced a  three point-agenda in which  farmers’ protest was their  main concern.

Interestingly, Capt. Amarinder Singh has emerged  as the savior of the Punjab leaders. Ever since  his removal as CM by the  Congress party and his decision to float his own political outfit, Amarinder has  made the withdrawal of the  farmers’ protest as a precondition for a tie-up with  the BJP and has suggested  the way out during his four  rounds of meeting with  Home Minister Amit Shah.

The Punjab BJP is convinced that their only hope  is to piggy ride on Amarinder’s party since the BJP  has never got a chance to  spread its roots in the state  as a junior partner of the  Shiromani Akali Dal which  broke its ties with the party  last year. Sources said a  final decision regarding  diluting some of the provisions of the three farm laws  is expected soon.