Akhilesh Yadav welcomes SAD's decision to quit NDA against farm bills

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday welcomed Shiromani Akali Dal's (SAD) decision to quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) against the recently promulgated farm bills.

"We welcome Akali Dal's move to quit National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to save the farmers from the exploitative policies of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)," Yadav tweeted.

"Apart from the opposition, people and BJP's alliance partners, even the workers of the ruling party are objecting to Centre's policies. This is because they are directly facing the ire of the people," he added.

The highest decision-making body of the Akali Dal at a meeting on Saturday night had decided unanimously to pull out of the BJP-led NDA because of the Centre's "stubborn refusal to give statutory legislative guarantees to protect assured marketing of farmers' crops on minimum support price".The meeting was presided over by Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal and the decision to quit the NDA came at the end of the meeting that went on for over three hours.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday gave his assent to three farm bills passed by the Parliament in the recently-concluded monsoon session.

With this, all three bills have now become acts- The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Service Act, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

The three bills were passed by Parliament amid vehement protest by the Opposition parties.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had on Saturday quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) over the farm bills issue.