The BJP recently held meetings to discuss the impact of the farmers’ protests in over 40 Lok Sabha seats spread across Haryana, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh where the Jat vote counts. Home Minister Amit Shah and the BJP chief J.P. Nadda have held meetings with party MPs and MLAs in the area trying to ascertain the damage. Union minister of state for Agriculture Sanjeev Balyan has been tasked to lead the BJP’s outreach to khap panchayat leaders. This is something of a worry for the BJP which had been making inroads into the Jat belt but now it seems that it is losing that advantage. Of course being the BJP it is clear that roll back is not on the agenda. But short of that all efforts will be made to placate the Jat farmer leaders. Part of the BJP’s counter strategy is to portray the agitation as being led by ‘professional agitators from the Left’ who are misleading the farmers and do not have their well-being at heart. But given the way the agitation has caught on this is going to be a tough ask.
The results from the Punjab municipal polls too should worry the BJP even though it doesn’t have much stakes in the state where the Congress won 1,399 of the 2,165 municipal wards, and six of the eight municipal corporations. But it should worry the Akali Dal more for it is clear that walking out of the Modi-led government hasn’t done much to assuage the farmers’ anger against the Badals.
With the Parliament session coming to an end, the Opposition hasn’t been able to focus on the farmers’ protests as much as it would have liked to. And now it is back to the streets to the khap panchayats and farmer leaders such as the Tikait brothers to gain as much political capital of the protests as they can. The Aam Admi Party too has tried to throw in their lot with the farmers but with mixed results. The one party that has gained some traction is the RLD with Jayant Chaudhury being on ground from Day 1 of the protests.
However, as the focus shifts to the West Bengal elections, one is left wondering as to how these protests will be resolved. Will the government wait for the farmers’ to go back to their fields as the season starts and then do some damage control? There really doesn’t seem to be any other way out as the farmers remain adamant about a roll back and the government equally adamant not to set such a precedent.