SAD Exit From NDA, Will YCP Use This Chance?

After a week of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MP Harisimrat Kaur quitting the post of Union agriculture minister, her party too bid adieu to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the Centre last night.

Kaur quit Modi Cabinet opposing the bills related to agriculture saying that they were anti-farmer. Since Kaur’s resignation, there was speculation that the SAD would also not continue with the NDA. The SAD’s move is being seen as an attempt to reclaim the party’s diminishing base among the farmers of Punjab, its native state.

With the Centre too remaining adamant over the three farm Bills — Farmers’ Produce Trade And Commerce (Promotion And Facilitation) Bill, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, protests by farmers have also been gaining momentum.

SAD’s bid to prove itself pro-farmer

The farmers associations argue that the legislations would eliminate the minimum support price regime which is the only source of income for the farmers. The Bills, it is being said, will also end the existing mandi system. The bills seek to include private players in agriculture and promote hurdle-free sale of produce, but the farmers argue that they will bring about corporate dominance.

Farmers in Punjab have been strongly opposing these ordinances for the last three months and the SAD is trying to project itself as a pro-farmer party ahead of the Assembly elections in the state in 2022.

In Punjab, the Congress government, led by Captain Amarinder Singh, passed a resolution from the Legislative Assembly on August 28 against the ordinances related to agriculture and Singh had done some exercise to claim himself as a sympathiser of the farmers. In such a situation, the SAD’s move is being seen a desperate move to balance the equations.

In the northern state, agriculture and farmers are so important that no political party can ignore them and can never imagine of getting voted to power without their involvement. Punjab depends on agriculture and agriculture-related industries for its survival.

LJP, JD(U) at loggerheads

SAD is the third party to quit the NDA. Earlier, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) and Shiv Sena were the two parties which parted ways with the NDA.

Even the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), another ally of the NDA, belonging to the Bihar is facing a similar situation like the SAD in its native state. Though it is happy being an ally of NDA at the Centre, in Bihar, the party’s head Chirag Paswan is always at loggerheads the JD (U) government, led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Both the parties have been sniping at each other for the last few months. Chirag is gearing up to contest for 147 seats out of the total 243-member Assembly in the state and Nitish is upset with this decision.

YCP leaders campaign

Setting these disputes aside, there is speculation that the vacancy created by SAD is likely to be filled by the YCP. The party leaders have been campaigning that the recent meeting between their party leader and AP Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, just a week ago, was to discuss the same. Already, the YCP has been issue-based support to the NDA. Now, it is being said that the NDA wants the YCP to do it officially.

Meanwhile, there is buzz in political circles that there is no chance of the NDA inviting the YCP government for an alliance because the BJP is a champion of the Hindutva cause which would not go down well with the Jagan government. In such a situation, it is being said that both the BJP and YCP would be happy with issue-based support only.

Sufficient numbers

Moreover, the BJP does not need any party’s support in the Lok Sabha as it has the sufficient numbers. In the next one year, the BJP is expecting to gain majority even in the Rajya Sabha too.

There is no urgent need for the BJP to get close to the YCP as of now but with the latter supporting each and every Bill introduced by the NDA in the Parliament there is talk that that the YCP would be asked to forge an alliance with the NDA and there is no clear indication of it.