Patna (Bihar): JD(U) Chief General Secretary, KC Tyagi, has said that the central govt should find a way to solve the farmers' issues. Talking to ETV Bharat, KC Tyagi said that a majority of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have been protesting for the past seven months for their rights and the 11 rounds of talks between the government and the farmers have yielded no results.
"I had already suggested that the government should take Sharad Pawar, Prakash Singh Badal and Nitish Kumar into confidence and try to find a solution for this issue," said Tyagi. With assembly elections for both Uttar Pradesh and Punjab due next year, Tyagi said that he wants NDA to succeed and therefore this issue must be resolved so that he can go to the public to ask for votes for the NDA.
He said that the present situation of stalemate is not ideal and therefore the government should once again talk to the farmers.
Also read: JD(U) will contest on its own in UP if needed: KC Tyagi
In another recent interview with ETV Bharat, Tyagi had said that the JD(U) decided to fight the 2022 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, with or without the NDA. On being asked whether the party's decision to fight against the BJP was a way for the party to distance itself from the BJP over its stand on the farmers' issue, Tyagi pointed to the NDA government in Bihar of which JD(U) is a part. Pointing out JD(U)'s participation in elections in states like West Bengal, Assam, Nagaland, Jharkhand, Tyagi said that the party "is not against anyone, but are trying to improve the party's position."
"Our first preference for an ally will be the NDA and if that doesn't work out, we have decided to fight the election on our own. We will contest the election on 200 seats," Tyagi said.
Asked whether the decision to contest 200 seats in UP would hurt BJP's vote bank in the state, Tyagi said that the vote belongs to those who manage to impress the masses. "Uttar Pradesh has seen the rule of SP, BSP, BJP and Congress. The people will elect those leaders who serve them well and work on their behalf," he said.
With some BJP leaders calling JDU party leadership's decision to contest on 200 seats despite having no voter base in the state; an attempt to undermine the BJP's vote share, Tyagi said, "BJP had two seats in 1984, how do they have 300 seats in the country today? If we don't contest how would we increase our voter base?"
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With the Union cabinet set to undergo an expansion, speculations are milling around about the JD(U) demanding ministerial berths. When asked about the matter, Tyagi refused to comment saying that it was the prerogative of the Prime Minister, which party or which leader he wants to keep in his cabinet. Interestingly, the JD(U) had, in 2019, decide to never be part of the NDA-led union cabinet after refusing to accept one ministerial berth offered by the BJP at the time.
"The proposal that was given was unacceptable to the JD (U), therefore we have decided that in future also JD (U) will never be a part of the NDA led Union Cabinet, this is our final decision," Tyagi had said at the time.
