Remember Rakesh Tikait? The man who wanted to score some political points in the garb of the farmer’s protest. It was never about the farmers but his political ambitions. This was proved when even after Prime Minister Narendra Modi withdrew the 3 farm laws, Rakesh Tikait insisted on not relieving his poor colleagues from protests. However, his political journey has seemingly ended even before a kickstart. Let me tell you how?
Rakesh Tikait expelled
In a massive development, the firebrand leader of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU)Rakesh Tikait, has been expelled from the party. Along with him, his brother Naresh Tikait has also been fired from the post of BKU’s National President. But, the question arises what went wrong? Well, the Tikait brothers have been accused by farmer leaders of ‘playing politics’, and ‘working in the interests of a political party’.
It is pertinent to note that the organization popularly is known for “spearheading and leading the farmers protest against the three Farm Laws for nearly a year.” However, with Tikait brother being fired, the organisation has been divided into two factions.
Meanwhile, Farmer leader Rajesh Singh Chauhan has been inducted as the new BKU (Apolitical) chief.
“BKU was inspired by politics”, BKU Chief
While interacting with media on Saturday, Chauhan remarked that “a lot of hard work had been put into creating the unified Bhartiya Kisan Union, which was built to safeguard the interests of the farmers. However, the organization under the Tikaits was turning into a ‘political zone’.”
He also declared that a new faction named ‘Bhartiya Kisan Union (Apolitical)’ has been formed as he wants to send out a message that the farmers’ body would not work for any ‘political party’.
Read more: It was never about the farm laws and Tikait has proved it
“Today our organization held a meeting. Our new organization’s name will be Bharatiya Kisan Union (Apolitical). We have no comment on Rakesh Tikait, or Naresh Tikait, they can keep doing what they want to do. But the BKU was turned into a political zone. It was inspired by politics,” said the BKU (A) chief.
He added, “We spoke to Rakesh Tikait and expressed our concerns. We did a lot of hard work to create BKU, but he asked us to support one party. We object to that. Our motive is to look into the problems of farmers. We will not work for any party.”
Tikait’s political ambitions
Under the garb of Farm Laws protests and farmer’s ‘welfare’, Rakesh Tikait was harbouring political dreams. It is evident from the fact that after three revolutionary farm laws were repealed, Tikait was spotted campaigning for political parties. It was Tikait’s alleged political affiliations that had raised multiple eyebrows.
In March 2021, Rakesh Tikait had campaigned for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal’s Nandigram and Kolkata. Moreover, his elder brother Naresh Tikait, while addressing the people in Uttar Pradesh had stated that “he hoped that the state would support the coalition candidates (Samajwadi Party-RLD) in the elections.”
Earlier as reported by TFI, Tikait seems to be providing tacit support to BJP’s opposition in state elections. His political criticisms have been centred towards one specific political party, i.e., BJP. Recently, a news anchor asked him to suggest any political party which farmers could vote for.
Tikait replied that he has trained people for 13 months and now if he is asked to suggest which party should be voted in power then his training has failed. Apparently, Tikait was signalling towards 13 months-long agitations against farm laws in the country.
You see, Tikait never actually cared about the farmers. What he cared about the most is his political ambitions. Now that he has been expelled from the BKU, it would be interesting to see what transpires next.