Cultivating the farmers for growing its voter base in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to launch a farmer contact programme in the State.
With elections just about a year away, the party would cover all villages across the State to know the reasons for farmers’ distress in the State.
The launch of the programme came at a time when the AAP is targeting the SAD-BJP led state government over the pesticide scam, with the Agriculture Minister Tota Singh facing the allegations, leading to damage of cotton crop due to attack of whitefly.
The development also assumes significance as the AAP’s rebel group, Swaraj Abhiyaan led by ousted leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, became active in the state announcing to approach the Supreme Court seeking adequate compensation for the cotton crop damage in the state due to whitefly and a probe into the pesticide scam.
AAP is trying hard to cash in on the farmers’ issue ahead of 2017 Punjab assembly polls. The party has recently held a state-wide agitation demanding action against Tota Singh in the pesticide scam.
The party leaders are also visiting the families of the farmers who have committed suicide due to their crop failure.
“We are going to launch the farmer contact programme in the State. Under this programme, the workers of the party’s Kisan and Mazdoor cell would visit each and every village of the state to access causes and reasons for the distress to the farmers,” an AAP leader told The Pioneer.
As a part of the programme, the party is aimed at providing support to the families of the farmers who have been forced to commit suicide.
“We have constituted a highly qualified team of agricultural experts to formulate policies to help the farmers which the successive Governments in the State have failed to do,” said the leader.
For the same, the party has divided the state into 39 sectors, and Kisan and Mazdoor Cell has appointed its in-charges.
Considering huge strong resentment and anger against the SAD-led state government, the party is leaving no stone unturned to woo the “distressed” farming community — considered to be the Akali Dal’s vote bank.
Under a well-thought strategy, AAP has been taking the SAD-BJP government head on by demanding Tota Singh’s resignation for his alleged involvement in the ‘pesticide scam’.
Seeing itself as a major force in Punjab, the party is also preparing its cadre at the grass-root level.
The anger among the farmers in the state’s cotton and rice belts, a couple of months ago, had reached such proportions that leaders of the ruling party as well as senior government officials were scared to venture into the villages. Protesters in many villages drove away leaders and officials who came to meet them.