UP poll: Tikait, other farm leaders to visit Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Varanasi

Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait along with other members of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) will visit Prayagraj, Gorakhpur and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh ahead of assembly elections in these districts.

Tikait, the influential national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), which is part of the SKM, shared the information on social media.

The SKM, an umbrella body of dozens of north Indian farmers' unions, had spearheaded the agitation against the Centre's now-repealed farm laws through protests that continued for over a year.

BKU spokesperson Saurabh Upadhyay said the SKM will hold presence conference in Prayagraj on February 23, in Gorakhpur on February 28 and in Varanasi on March 2.

Farmer leaders Rakesh Tikait, Shivkumar Sharma 'Kakkaji', Yogendra Yadav, among others, will visit these places as part of the SKM programme. We are not telling anyone whom to vote for, we are just asking people to punish those who are against farmers, Upadhyay told PTI.

Assembly polls are scheduled in Prayagraj on February 27, in Gorakhpur on March 3 and in Varanasi on March 7. Election results will be declared on March 10.

While Uttar Pradesh government ministers like Nand Gopal Gupta and Siddharth Nath Singh are among popular BJP candidates in the fray from Prayagraj, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be contesting assembly polls from Gorakhpur.

Varanasi is the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and considered a bastion of the BJP.