Punjab: People in Punjab are not upset over the three farm laws passed by the Narendra Modi government, and farmers will vote for the BJP in large numbers in the upcoming local body elections due to these transformational reforms, said MP Dushyant Gautam, who is Chandigarh and Punjab in-charge of the party.
Talking to ThePrint, Gautam said farm laws, apart from ‘Nasha Mukt Punjab’, will be a major poll plank for the local body elections to be held in the state in February.
“Kisan (farmers) will vote for us and overall Punjabis will vote for us because of the farm laws. They know these reforms were necessary and it is only the Congress which is trying to mislead the farmers. Congress and Leftists are behind the present agitation. They are simply misleading our farmers.”
He added: “…we know that farmers can see the truth. We have accepted all demands including MSP. Our party has already started publicising the farm laws and in the days to come, (we) will intensify our efforts to reach out to them.”
Gautam said ‘Nasha Mukt‘ Punjab will also be a central theme of the campaign. “So many deaths have taken place due to spurious liquor or drug abuse. We are highlighting these issues in our campaign.”
He said the party is contesting on all seats for the local body elections.
Earlier, the BJP contested on these seats with ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). However, in September 2020, SAD walked out of the NDA over the three agriculture sector reform laws — Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Service Act, 2020, and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
“We have decided to contest on all seats. Earlier, we used to contest on around 20 per cent of the seats (chiefly in urban areas). The protests regarding the farm laws is not an issue in the state. In fact, people are happy with the reforms. We will concentrate on local development and Kisan will be one of the major focus areas of our campaign,” he added.
Meetings to prep for polls
Sources in the BJP said a number of meetings have taken place in the state to prepare for the municipal elections as many party leaders fear that calls for their social boycott by the opposition parties can prove to be detrimental.
The upcoming assembly elections and local body elections will also be discussed Wednesday in a meeting of the BJP general secretaries, which will be chaired by party president J.P. Nadda.
Gautam also said senior party leaders and ministers will campaign for these polls and “a list is being prepared for that”.
Elections to the eight municipal corporations and 109 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in Punjab will be held on 14 February. The counting of votes will take place on 17 February. The process for filing nominations would commence on 30 January and the last date would be 3 February.
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