CM Mann ‘succeeded’ in jeopardising efforts of farmers, Centre for resolution: Punjab BJP chief

Chandigarh, Feb 20 (PTI) Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has jeopardised the efforts of both farmer leaders and Union ministers at arriving at a solution, state BJP chief Sunil Jakhar alleged on Tuesday.

His remarks come a day after farmers rejected the Centre’s proposal to buy pulses, maize and cotton crops through government agencies at minimum support price (MSP) for five years, and announced to continue with their ‘Delhi Chalo’ agitation.

Mann, who leads the Aam Aadmi Party government in the state, on Sunday had joined the meeting between three Union ministers and farmer leaders where the proposal was made.

It is “most unfortunate” that the negotiations between farmers and the central government have not fructified, Jakhar said as thousands of farmers camp at the Punjab-Haryana border over their demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP and farm debt waiver.

“With Bhagwant Mann himself — of all the people — acting as the lawyer for the farmers, these negotiations were destined to fail because CM Mann had everything to gain from the failures of these talks,” he said in a post on X.

On Monday’s developments, the BJP leader claimed that not only would Mann now be able to show the central government in “bad light” but redirect those farmers, who initially wanted to march to Chandigarh, to Delhi.

He said that “sure enough, he (Mann) has succeeded in this mission by jeopardising the sincere efforts of both the farmers and the central ministerial team to arrive at a solution”.

“Punjab wonders who gave the ‘vakalat nama’ (authority) to represent the farmers to such a person, who not only backtracked on his promise to provide MSP within five minutes of formation of his government but also cheated Punjab’s farmers of the compensation for flood damage,” Jakhar said.

On Sunday, Mann had said that he participated in the meeting as an “advocate” of the farmers.

He has joined three of the four meetings held between farmer leaders and Union ministers ?Piyush Goyal, Arjun Munda and Nityananad Rai.