Beniwal’s RLP quits NDA, joins protests
JAIPUR: After Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Rashtriya Loktantric Party (RLP) chief Hanuman Beniwal also walked out of National Democratic Alliance on Saturday. While addressing farmers’ rally in Shahjahanpur in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, Beniwal said, “Bye-bye. We are quitting NDA. Nothing is above the pride of farmers in the country.”
State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Mukesh Pareekh said that Beniwal’s party is an independent party and a one man’s unit. “Just because of him, the BJP left the parliamentary seat from Nagaur and helped him in winning the election,” he said.
“Earlier, he had supported the agri laws but now just to gain political mileage he had quit the alliance,” Pareekh added.
The SAD in September had also pulled out of the BJP-led NDA coalition at the Centre over the passage of contentious farm bills passed in Parliament earlier this month.
Thousands of RLP supporters joined the farmers protest on Saturday on Jaipur-Delhi National Highway in Shahjahanpur along the RajasthanHaryana border. Around 3 pm on Saturday, hundreds of vehicles had reached the border from Kotputli area of Jaipur rural.
“I request the central government to not play with flames. Any government who has dared to go against (farmers) has been dethroned. Because of this act, agriculture mandis will end. Why didn’t the government consult the farmers? Because of this act land mafias raj will increase. I don’t understand why is the government not rolling back the laws,” said Beniwal at the protest site.
Calling himself a son of a farmer, Beniwal said he had always supported them. “The central government is in the mood to muscle down the farmers’ protest. But this is the issue of sustenance and pride of farmers and we are standing with them,” he said.