Farmer issues dominate election campaign songs

With Baroda bypoll round the corner, campaign songs of political parties in Haryana are revolving around farmer issues amid protests against the Centre’s agriculture laws.

Four prominent candidates— BJP’S Yogeshwar Dutt, Congress’s Indu Raj Narwal, INLD’S Joginder Singh Malik and former Kurukshetra MP Raj Kumar Saini of the Loktantra Suraksha party are locked in a fight for the rural constituency. The Baroda by election are slated for November 3.

During the poll campaign of INLD patriarch OP Chautala and his son Abhay Chautala, who is also Ellenabad MLA, a song “Kisano Ki rulde feren the dane, messiah aaya sath nibhane (the farmers’ produce was lying in the mandis without procurement, the messiah (Abhay Singh) came there to help them amid Covid- 19) was being played.

In the song, the INLD highlights the poor condition of crop procurement amid Covid- 19 pandemic, distribution of masks and sanitisers by Abhay Singh Chautala and how he had toured various mandis in the state to support farmers. The song also mentions how Abhay Chautala came out from his Teja Khera farmhouse like a cloud and helped the distressed farmers. On the other hand, the Congress has chosen ‘ Zamidar yo tut leya (the farmer is broken), a song that emphasises the plight of farmers, rise in corruption and unemployment besides promising to elect Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda as the next chief minister of Haryana.

The ruling BJP, which is facing protests by farmers against the three agriculture laws, has launched a song “ya mandi nyu a chal gi, MSP nyu a aavga yo bad –bad k n aavga (this mandi system and MSP will continue and every time the MSP will be released with a rise). The BJP’S theme song says “the Congress’s lie will not be sold, if you burn a tractor then we will expose your lie. You will bring Rahul and make fake perceptions. You should bring Robert and hand our land back. Modi has been giving us ₹6,000 per annum and implementing new schemes for our welfare”.

The bypoll has become a prestige issue for leader of opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, INLD general secretary Abhay Singh Chautala and Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP-JJP coalition government. The INLD has won the constituency from 1977 to 2005. The saffron party’s nominee has never won from Baroda, which has 54 villages.