Panchayat polls a semi-final for Adityanath govt amid farm protests

The UP panchayat polls are perhaps the world's largest local body elections, which will comprise a nearly 120-million electorate, eligible to elect the members of nearly 59,000 panchayats in the state

Within weeks of the Yogi Adityanath government completing four years in office on March 19, 2021, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be facing panchayat polls against the backdrop of farm protests and opposition unity on the contentious issue.

Since Rakesh Tikait, a prominent farmers’ leader representing the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) in the harvest-rich Western Uttar Pradesh region, has become the rallying point of the protests at the Delhi borders, the panchayat polls will be seen as a kind of verdict from the hinterland for Yogi Adityanath ahead of the crucial 2022 UP elections.

The tenure of the state panchayat