All eyes are on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much-hyped farmers’ rally at Shahjahanpur on Saturday, the fifth in UP in the last three weeks. The rally is expected to be attended by over three lakh farmers from six adjoining districts. The focus would be on ‘annadata’ (grain provider) and how the Union Government has brought smiles on their faces.
Farmers of adjoining districts like lakhimpur Kheri, Hardoi, Pilibhit, Bareilly, Sitapur and Badaun in large numbers, are likely to attend the rally. It assumes importance as this will be Modi’s first public address after the No-confidence motion in lok Sabha.
The State unit of BJP has made arrangements for the Kisan rally. To review preparations, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and State BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey visited the rally venue on Tuesday.
In the rally, the PM is expected to address farmers’ plights and highlight the Centre’s decision to hike MSP of Kharif crops.
Pandey told reporters in lucknow that that after coming to power, the BJP’s pro-farmer policies have started taking shape as the party believes that a nation could progress only if the farmers were happy.
“Working on this principle the Modi Government has taken up the challenge to double farmers’ income and is working in this direction,” he said.
Earlier, the PM had addressed a rally in Sant Kabir Nagar in June end and attended three back to back rallies in Azamgarh, Varanasi and Mirzapur on July 14-15. Modi is also expected to visit lucknow on July 29 to attend the ground breaking ceremony on Investors Meet. He will also attend a national seminar on Urban Development.
BJP general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak said that the Centre had done a lot for farmers during its four-year regime and the MSP hike on Kharif crop was unprecedented.
“Hike of Rs 200 per quintal on paddy and rise in the MSP of other crop to a maximum of Rs 1,800 per quintal itself proves the commitment of the BJP towards farmers ,” he said.
Shahjahanpur, an agriculturally prosperous district of UP, tops in wheat and sugarcane cultivation. Though, the BJP won this seat in 2014 lok Sabha polls, political analysts feel that the Saffron party was losing ground due to dominance of Dalits and Other Backward Classes in this region.
Sources claimed that the BJP’s was considering Shahjahanpur as a focal point to automatically galvanise boost lakhimpur Kheri, Hardoi, Sitapur and Bareilly. Sitting BJP MP from Shahjahanpur Krishna Raj is a minister of State in the Union Government.