'Sirfire log': Manohar Lal Khattar on farmers opposing BJP's LS election candidates

JIND: Over two years after he had called upon volunteers to pick up sticks and fight "furious farmers " during their agitation against the now-repealed farm laws in Oct 2021, former Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday courted controversy again by using the term "sirfire" for farmers opposing BJP Lok Sabha election candidates in the state.

"Jo log virodh kar rahe hai, vo sirfire hai aur unka sabko pata hai (Those who are opposing are crazy people and everybody knows about them)," said Khattar while replying to a query on the continuous boycott of BJP nominees in villages and towns of the state by farmers. "If 10 people oppose our candidates, 100 more are coming to support them. Instead, BJP is benefitting from such protests . Earlier, these people used to show their influence through muscle power, but they can't do that now under this govt," said Khattar as he marshalled support for Sonipat LS BJP nominee Mohan Lal Badoli.

The protests by farmers have forced many BJP members to cancel their public meetings and programmes ahead of the elections. The party's former ally, JJP, especially former deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala, too is facing such protests.

Punjab is also seeing farmers target BJP candidates regularly.

At Jind, Khattar said that BJP candidates were seeking votes in the name of development and achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's govt in the last 10 years.

Highlighting the works of the BJP govt in the state, he said, "We introduced a CM window to address people's grievances on time. Over 13 lakh applications were received out of which over 11 lakh were resolved through this system in the last nine-and-a-half years. However, we can't solve every problem."

Khattar said: "The state govt introduced online portals and services and people are not required to run to offices for routine work. We implemented an online transfer policy and jobs are being given on merit basis."

"We will seek votes on the basis of promises in the BJP manifesto. We will win Sonipat by a sizeable margin. I will visit each segment of this Lok Sabha seat to ensure the victory of the BJP candidate," Khattar added.