Vote for farmers, not NOTA: Tikait brothers' pre-poll appeal

Elections will be held in 58 assembly seats across 11 districts of western Uttar Pradesh, where the BKU holds a considerable sway

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) president Naresh Tikait and its spokesperson Rakesh Tikait on Wednesday appealed to people to vote on farmers' issues during the first phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, beginning Thursday.

Elections will be held in 58 assembly seats across 11 districts of western Uttar Pradesh, where the BKU, an influential farmers' union of north India, holds a considerable sway among the farming community.

"Not NOTA, but vote in the elections and hit the issues of farmers, I will be voting along with my family at 2 PM in Sisauli, you too join the mahayagya of democracy," Naresh Tikait tweeted in Hindi.

His younger brother Rakesh Tikait also put out a similar tweet except his polling booth is in Muzaffarnagar city and not in their ancestral village of Sisauli.

Sisauli, the headquarters of the BKU, is in Muzaffarnagar district of western Uttar Pradesh.

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The BKU is part of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), which had spearheaded the agitation against the now-repealed three central farm laws for over a year from November 2020.

Rakesh Tikait, the spokesperson of the BKU, had emerged as a prominent face of the agitation and credited with reviving the agitation which had started waning post January 26, 2021 violence in Delhi.

The Tikait brothers' remark to "vote for farmers' issues" assumes significance amid a much-talked about anti-BJP feeling in parts of western Uttar Pradesh in the wake of the farmers' agitation during which over 700 people are claimed to have lost their lives.

Naresh and Rakesh Tikait are sons of legendary farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait. Naresh Tikait is also the head of the Balyan Khap.

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