It was only a few months ago that 22 farm unions entered politics when they formed a party in Punjab called the Sanyukta Samaj Morcha (SSM). It chose to contest the state Assembly election from 94 seats and lost from all.
Barring Lakha Sidhana, SSM leaders contesting on 93 seats forfeited their deposits.
The party’s chief ministerial candidate Balbir Singh Rajewal, who heads the BKU (Rajewal), finished a distant sixth, got only 3.5 percent vote share, and lost his deposit from Samrala constituency of Punjab.
After the Narendra Modi government scrapped the three controversial farm laws in November 2021, a few saw the farm unions as a political alternative. The SSM, however, failed to secure a single seat. What are the reasons for such a poor performance?
SSM Failed To Understand Old Political Affiliations of Farmers
Firstly, farm unions had formed a party after being motivated by the success of the protests at Delhi’s borders but farm leaders failed to understand that the farmers who had participated had their own political inclinations and loyalties. They didn’t look at farm leaders as political leaders, rather purely as those fighting against the three laws.
Delhi University’s assistant professor Anuroop Sandhu, in the middle of her election campaign for the SSM, had decided to pull out as she felt that the people who were protesting at Delhi’s border returned home and were roaming around holding flags of traditional political parties. She was, however, convinced to return to contesting the election from Muktsar seat.
Secondly, farm leaders had initially claimed that they would never enter politics, and even criticised BKU (Chaduni) leader Gurnam Singh for his political bend. But the same leaders later on entered the political fray. This led to a breach of trust. A group of men in Balongi village in Punjab’s Samrala had told this reporter before elections that “farm leaders should have not entered politics and their decision to contest elections is wrong.”
Thirdly, it is important to understand that the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) was a divided house even when it was protesting at Delhi’s Singhu border. There were 32 farm unions in Punjab’s SKM, of which 22 had claimed to form the political party.
Later, only 13 farm unions stayed with the SSM, according to Delhi-based PhD scholar Harinder Happy, who played a role in the SKM during farm protest. Some of the largest farm unions of Punjab such as the BKU (Ugarhan), BKU (Dakunda), Krantikari Kisan Union, BKU (Sidhupur), and BKU (Krantikari) did not contest the election. Some of them have even stated that “struggle, and not election, is the way forward.”
Unorganised, Poor Choice of Candidates
Fourthly, there is a huge difference between organising a protest and running a political party. While farm protests got support from all quarters of Punjab, the same cannot be said about the SSM’s political campaign.
The SSM was unorganised, and even struggled to get itself registered as a party at first. It received objections from the Election Commission of India (ECI) initially. All its candidates filed nominations as independents at first, and the ECI only accepted SSM’s application to be registered as a political party on 1 February – the last day to file nomination.
Fifthly, the party had a hard time finding good candidates. Many had zero background or experience in running an organisation or a political campaign. Sensing defeat, the candidate from Mansa, Gurnam Singh of Punjab Kisan Union, withdrew his nomination.
Reason number six is the lack of support from the local Punjabi media. The farmers’ protest and the SKM got ample coverage, thanks to the local media, and it pushed Delhi media houses to do the same. But once the party was formed, the SSM found itself ignored.
Should Have Allied With AAP
Another reason why the SSM performed so poorly is that it lost time trying to stitch an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The SSM demanded 60 seats from AAP, and Arvind Kejriwal went ahead with announcement of tickets without any alliance. The SSM saw this as a betrayal. Had it demanded fewer seats and allied with AAP, it may have benefited.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)