BJP leaders face ire of farmers in Uttar Pradesh villages

Amid desperate efforts by the top BJP leadership to placate the electorally influential 'Jat' community ahead of the first phase of polling in the western UP districts on February ten, the BJP leaders and the saffron party nominees have been facing protests from the people, mainly farmers, in the villages in several districts in the region.

As the videos of the protests against the BJP candidates and leaders became viral on social media platforms, the party blamed the rival Samajwadi Party (SP) and its alliance partner Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) for the same.

It all started with the protests against the BJP candidate from the Khatauli assembly seat in Muzaffarnagar district Vikram Saini when he reached Munavarpur village in the constituency a few days back for campaigning. As Saini sought to speak to the villagers, scores of them started raising slogans against him and asked him to go back. Saini tried to persuade the villagers to listen to him but they remained adamant and finally, he had to leave.

Also Read | Uttar Pradesh polls to decide future of the state and country: Amit Shah

State BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh also had to face the ire of the people, when he visited the Valmiki Basti in Khatauli on Tuesday. As his cavalcade reached the Valmiki Basti, several youths shouted slogans against him. They were angry over the Hathras incident in which a Dalit teen was allegedly gangraped before being murdered and her body was cremated by the cops at midnight in the absence of her family members.

BJP candidate from Asmauli assembly seat in Sambhal district Harendra Singh Rinku also had to face the ire of the people when he visited Shakarpur village in the constituency for campaigning. According to the reports he was heckled by the people and was forced to leave.

Similarly, the BJP nominee from Siwalkhas assembly seat Maninder Pal Singh also faced protests from the people when he visited the constituency on Tuesday for door-to-door campaigning. He was chased and the window panes of his vehicle were broken after someone threw stones.

UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya also faced protests on his home turf of Sirathu from where he is in the fray in the forthcoming assembly polls

Reports of protests against some other BJP candidates, including firebrand saffron leader and UP minister for cane Suresh Rana, were also received from their respective assembly constituencies.

''The protests are being organised by the SP and the RLD.....only a handful of people are behind them...they want to demoralise our nominees but they will not succeed,'' said a senior BJP functionary here on Thursday while reacting to the protests.

SP leaders however said that the protests were spontaneous and not sponsored by them or the RLD. ''People are angry with the BJP.....it is reaping what it has sown,'' remarked an SP leader. SP president Akhilesh Yadav had also said that the BJP leaders were being 'thrashed' by the villagers but the TV channels were not showing it.

Check out the latest videos from DH: