New Delhi: The RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) has decided to launch a countrywide membership drive, months ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, in what’s said to be a move to reach out to farmers and showcase its initiatives.
A source in the BKS told ThePrint that the outfit will also highlight the Modi government’s initiatives for farmers, especially those implemented at its behest, adding: “The timing of the membership drive has nothing to do with the elections. We do our own work, which is to reach out to farmers and raise their concerns with the government, whether at the state or the central level.”
The drive is scheduled to take place between December 2023 and January 2024.
BKS organising secretary Dinesh Kulkarni told ThePrint that the target of the organisation is to cover at least one lakh villages and reach out to more than one crore villagers and make them BKS members.
An RSS functionary told ThePrint, “It will be an important outreach programme to highlight the welfare measures the government has taken, as well as the work done by the BKS for the uplift of the farmer community and the agriculture sector.”
“There are around 6.5 lakh revenue villages (small administrative units) in India. Our abhiyan (drive) will focus on connecting farmers with the organisation,” the functionary further said, adding that a similar drive held earlier got affected by the Covid pandemic.
The drive will highlight government schemes in place for the welfare of the farmer community, the work done by the RSS, as well as issues related to Minimum Support Price (MSP), the functionary further explained, adding: “We are making special efforts to reach out to farmers in Punjab.”
The BJP, which is leading the NDA government at the Centre, has been making efforts to reach out to the farmer community, a key votebank, ever since the farmers’ agitation of 2020-2021. Three farm laws passed by the Narendra Modi government in September 2020 had sparked huge protests, with thousands of farmers, especially from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, sitting on the borders of the national capital for about a year. The Centre had to finally repeal the laws.
A second RSS functionary from Rajasthan told ThePrint: “The idea is to reach out to as many farmers as possible, even in the remotest villages. We have been carrying out protests and submitting memorandums to highlight the problems being faced by the agricultural community.”
“To raise these issues more effectively in rural areas, we are looking to make young farmers members of the BKS. Some units at the local level have already started the membership drive,” he said, adding that “so far, the BKS has 30 lakh members”.
Some of the key states that will be covered under the drive include Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Punjab, among others, according to the functionary.
In the poll-bound states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the membership drive has already been started at the district level and will continue till 15 September, he said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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