New Party Projects Farm Leader Charuni to Lead Punjab as Chief Minister
As Punjab is facing an extreme socio-economic turmoil, most Punjab voters are fed up with the traditional political parties which have ruined Punjab in the past couple of decades.
By Rakesh Raman
A traders’ body in Punjab has formed a new political outfit under the banner Bhartiya Aarthik Party (BAP) and declared that farm leader Gurnam Singh Charuni will be its chief ministerial (CM) candidate for the 2022 Assembly election in the state.
Charuni is a member of the the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) – the umbrella organization of about 40 farmers’ unions – which is protesting these days to get the contentious farm laws repealed.
Announced Monday (August 9), the Bhartiya Aarthik Party (BAP) said it will contest all the 117 seats in the upcoming Punjab election. Charuni has been propagating the idea of forming a political group to contest Punjab election under the Mission Punjab 2022 campaign, although other farm leaders have shown their reluctance.
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As the Indian government has refused to accept farmers’ demands, Charuni said that farmers need to enter politics to get their voice heard. Although Charuni has not openly accepted the offer to become the CM candidate, his association with BAP is being seen as a defiance of SKM’s decision of not joining politics.
In July, SKM had suspended Charuni for a week from the group for unilaterally expressing his views about the Mission Punjab 2022 political campaign.
Currently, the main political groups operating in Punjab are: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
As Punjab is facing an extreme socio-economic turmoil, most Punjab voters are fed up with the traditional political parties which have ruined Punjab in the past couple of decades.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.
