Either act on farm stir or BJP runs risk of UP polls coming a cropper

Till September 25, the Karnal gathering of farmers will stay put, shifting to UP to keep up the pressure

Farmers from the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), who are currently holding Haryana Chief Minister (CM) M  L Khattar’s constituency Karnal to ransom, plan to hold 17 mega meetings in cities, including Lucknow, Varanasi, and Gorakhpur, over the next six months and will call for an all-India strike on September 27.

The strike will follow a meeting of many Opposition leaders – including some alliance partners of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – against the Union government’s farm laws on September 25 at Jind in Haryana.

In the current circumstances, unless the BJP acts to stem the damage, it may find