Once considered a safe seat for the BJP, the Ganganagar Lok Sabha constituency located in an area that routinely registers the highest summer temperatures in Rajasthan is making the party sweat.
The reason is farmer anger, with Ganganagar residents active participants in the protests spearheaded by associations from neighbouring Punjab against the Centre, including one earlier this year over the MSP issue. Thousands were part of protests here, and with the Narendra Modi government standing firm against the demand to legalise MSP, anger is still palpable.
In the November 2023 Assembly elections, of the eight Assembly segments that fall under the Ganganagar Lok Sabha seat, five were won by the Congress. The BJP, which came to power in the state, got just two seats in Ganganagar while one went to an Independent.
In all, the BJP lost in 9 of the 11 Assembly seats where farmer issues are dominant, in the area.
Even in the panchayat elections held recently, the impact of the farmer protests was felt by the BJP, with the party failing to win a single zilla parishad or panchayat samiti board. Now, one of the main issues being raised by both the BJP and Congress is improving irrigation facilities for farmers.
On Tuesday, Ranjit Singh Raju, the Rajasthan president of the Gram Kisan Majdoor Samiti and other farmer leaders held a press conference in Ganganagar where they requested the people “not to vote for the BJP” but for any other party of their choice.
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Raju told The Indian Express: “The BJP-led Central government has always deceived farmers. The BJP government first introduced the black farm laws in 2020. It announced their withdrawal after a year-long protest, but we remain scared on the issue. Second, the government is still not agreeing to an MSP on grain and pulses, which we need.”
Raju says the BJP is good at making promises, but rarely fulfills them, and would continue to pay a price. “We showed them the power of the farmers in the Assembly and panchayat elections. This time we will show it in the Lok Sabha elections.”
Other farmer leaders say that while they have not decided which party to support, they were firm about voting against the BJP.
Ray Singh Jakhad, a member of the Bhakhda Kisan Sangh, claims “deep-seated anger in the farming community of Ganganagar and Hanumangarh”. “The BJP promised in its manifesto that it will purchase wheat at Rs 2,300 and will also give us a bonus. They are yet to fulfill their promise. Moreover, adequate canal water is not reaching the farmers.”
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Ram Kumar Saharan, the district president of the Gram Kisan Majdoor Samiti, says the BJP got a “warning” as recently as 2024, when it lost from the Karanpur Assembly seat for which election had to be held separately from the 2023 polls due to the death of the Congress candidate. Though the BJP re-fielded Surendra Pal Singh, after having made him a minister, he still lost. “It was a signal to the BJP that things will not be easy for them in the Lok Sabha,” says Saharan.
Recently, BJP Ganganagar candidate Priyanka Balan told the media that her party would not “repeat the mistakes of the Assembly elections”.
However, the BJP’s decision to pick Balan for the seat is also a cause of resentment. Ganganagar is a Scheduled Caste-reserved seat, with one-fourth of its population Dalit. Of them, most are Meghwals. Both the BJP and Congress have traditionally fielded a Meghwal from Ganganagar.
But the BJP this time dropped its five-time Ganganagar MP Nihal Chand Meghwal for Balan. A BJP supporter in Ganganagar says: “Priyanka is a Meghwal married to an Arora. She always uses the Balan surname but now her election posters mention her surname as ‘Meghwal’. But Opposition leaders and leaders of the Meghwal community are pointing out that having married a non-Meghwal, she no longer belongs to the community.”
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Congress candidate Kuldeep Indora, who belongs to the Dhanka Scheduled Caste community, raises the issue of farmers in all his speeches. He tells The Indian Express: “The BJP has lathicharged farmers, not given them the promised MSP, and then they are blaming us for not being on the ground and not helping people. The BJP will lose Ganganagar due to its government’s anti-farmer policies.”
However, Balan asserts that she is confident farmers will vote for the BJP. “There was some anger during the Assembly elections, but in the Lok Sabha polls, everyone votes for Modi. The BJP has promised to strengthen the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana. We have introduced many policies beneficial for farmers. So it can’t be said that farmers don’t support us.”
