The Samajwadi Party on Sunday expressed apprehensions that the Centre will reintroduce the three contentious farm laws after the 2022 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the three laws will be repealed during the Winter Session scheduled to commence on November 29.

The Akhilesh Yadav-led party expressed concerns on the matter after a Bharatiya Janata Party MP and Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra said that the farm laws could be brought back.

“Their intentions are not pure, the Bills will be brought back again,” the Samajwadi Party said in a tweet. “While occupying Constitutional posts, Governor of Rajasthan Kalraj Mishra and BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj have said that the BJP government might introduce the farm Bills again. This shows the reality of those tendering false apologies to farmers. The farmers will bring a change in 2022.”

On Saturday, Mishra, who is a member of the BJP, had said that the central government tried to explain farmers about the laws but they were adamant about the withdrawal, reported ANI.

“In the end, the government thought that the laws should taken back and drafted again later if needed,” he said.

Meanwhile, BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj said that the decision to repeal the laws is not related to the upcoming Assembly elections in various states, ANI reported.

“For Prime Minister, the nation comes first,” he said. “Bills come, they are repealed, they can come back, they can be re-drafted”.

Responding to Modi’s announcement on Friday, the Opposition had pointed out that the announcement to withdraw the laws came ahead of the Assembly elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh scheduled for early next year. Farmers from the two states have been at the forefront of the agitation.

“What cannot be achieved by democratic protests can be achieved by the fear of impending elections,” Congress leader P Chidambaram had tweeted. “PM’s announcement on the withdrawal of the three farm laws is not inspired by a change of policy or a change of heart. It is impelled by fear of elections.”

Farm laws

Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, have been protesting at Delhi’s border entry points since November 2020, seeking the withdrawal of the farm laws.

They farmers expressed fear that the central government’s new laws would make them vulnerable to corporate exploitation and would dismantle the minimum support price regime.

The Centre, however, had claimed that the laws would give farmers more access to markets and boost production through private investment.

In January, nearly two months into the protest movement, the Supreme Court suspended the implementation of the farm laws. It instead set up a committee and tasked it to consult stakeholders and assess the impact of the laws.

After Modi’s announcement, farmers’ unions have said that they will continue to hold agitations at the borders of Delhi till the farm laws are revoked in Parliament.

They also said that the government should introduce a law to guarantee minimum support price for crops and withdraw cases lodged against protestors during the agitation against the farm laws.

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