BJP's sister group to ignore Modi's farm festival

The Narendra Modi Government's agricultural festival aimed at winning over the farmers of Gujarat has hit an obstacle from unexpected quarters.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) sister organisation Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) has opted to keep a safe distance from the entire affair.

"We neither support it nor oppose it," said Magan Patel, general secretary of the BKS in the state.

A high profile and intensive month-long agriculture festival designed to take the might of the state and its schemes to the doorsteps of the farmer was flagged off from Haripar near Rajkot in Saurashtra region yesterday.

"We will not oppose it but that does not mean that we will support every policy of the state government," said Patel.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the state leadership of the BKS have been at loggerheads for long.

Though the BKS is reported to have softened its stand under intense pressure from the party hierarchy, it is determined not to work for the success of the fair.

Highly placed sources within the BKS said a decision has been taken not to mobilise farmers for the rallies that will be held during the festival in various parts of the state.

Modi has said that each one of the 18,000 villages in the state will be covered during the festival through 228 krishi raths one for each of the 228 talukas and a slew of agriculture services aimed at educating the farmer.

Relations between the two sister organisations in the state soured over the power tariff increase and under pressure from the highest quarters in the state government, the BKS was forced out of its office in the MLAs quarters.

Things have never been the same again between Modi and the BKS. .

The agriculture fair is Modi's strategic move to win back the farmers to the BJP fold.

Their alienation led to the erosion of the party's vote bank. The BJP which had won 127 of the 182 seats in the last assembly elections in the state in 2002 could manage only 14 of the 26 seats in the Lok Sabha elections that followed it in 2004.

The chief minister who is going all out to ensure the success of the fair has been personally contacting even the MLAs belonging to the dissident faction within the party.

However, for the moment, the dissidents are in no mood to give in.