After a hiatus of about one-and-a-half years, senior BJP leader and former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh was seen in public on Friday, when he visited a state grain market to meet farmers who have been agitating against the slow procurement of their paddy produce due to a standoff between the rice millers and the government. Amarinder visited the Khanna grain market, considered as Asia's biggest, in the morning just before the farmers led by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) started laying siege on the state's highways to protest against their paddy being not picked up by the millers from the grain markets. The 82-year-old two-term CM's appearance in public has come ahead of the November 13 by-elections to four constituencies in the state. It also assumes significance as CM Bhagwant Mann has not visited any mandis so far despite a procurement crisis gripping the paddy crop resulting in its glut in the mandis. The BJP has already named its candidates for all the four bypoll seats, who include ex-finance minister Manpreet Badal from Gidderbaha, Kewal Dhillon from Barnala, Ravi Karan Kahlon from Dera Baba Nanak, and former minister Sohan Singh Thandal from Chabbewal. The ruling AAP and the principal Opposition Congress have also fielded their candidates for these seats vacated after their MLAs got elected to the Lok Sabha in the recent general elections. While Barnala was represented by the AAP, the remaining three seats were held by the Congress. Amarinder merged his outfit Punjab Lok Congress with the BJP in September 2022, months after he quit the Congress after its leadership replaced him with Charanjit Singh Channi as the CM ahead of the February 2022 Punjab Assembly polls, in which the AAP swept to power. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Amarinder had not campaigned for the BJP, citing health issues. He was then conspicuous by his absence from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rallies too. He had not even campaigned for his wife Preneet Kaur, who contested from their home turf in Patiala, unsuccessfully, on the BJP ticket. Of the 13 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP, fighting the polls solo, drew a blank, while its erstwhile ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) managed to win just one seat. The Congress and the AAP bagged seven and three seats respectively, with the remaining two seats clinched by the Independents. Amarinder was said to have made his last public appearance in May 2023, when he campaigned in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll for BJP candidate Inder Iqbal Atwal, who lost the election. The BJP has been drawing fire from the farmers since the enactment of the now-repealed three central farm laws in 2020. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the farm protesters did not allow the BJP leaders and candidates to campaign at several places, especially in villages, and showed them black flags. On Friday, however, Amarinder got a “warm welcome” in the Khanna mandi by farmers as well as arhtiyas (commission agents). An office-bearer of a local arhtiya association praised him for “having successfully procured all the crops in the state during his tenure as the CM (of a Congress government) from 2002-2007 and then from 2017-2021”. An aide of Amarinder told The Indian Express that “he took the decision to meet the farmers in the grain market as he felt strongly about their cause”. He was conveyed by the police that his travel might not be safe given the highway blockade being held by the protesting farmers. “But Amarinder Singh insisted that he would go to meet the farmers in the morning,” the aide said. While interacting with the farmers, Amarinder assured them that he would take up their issues with PM Modi soon. Recalling his two terms as the CM, he claimed that his government had ensured procurement of the entire wheat and paddy crops for 10 years. Taking a swipe at the AAP CM, he asked why Mann has not visited any mandis so far to meet the farmers and redress their grievances. “Amarinder Singh may even go to campaign for Manpreet Badal and Kewal Dhillon,” his aide said. In his past campaigns, Amarinder had always been projected as the “kissani da raakha” (saviour of farmers). Amarinder had spearheaded the Congress’s campaign in the state in the 2017 Assembly polls, when the party returned to power by winning 77 seats out of 117, defeating the then ruling SAD-BJP coalition. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls too, he led the Congress’s campaign in the state, helping it to bag 8 seats of 13, with the SAD and the BJP winning two each.
