Uttarakhand’s proximity to the epicenter of the peasant movement and its impact on some parts of the state is an interesting case study. One-fifth of the state’s households are farmer families – based mainly in the hills rather than in the plains. About three-fifths of voters believed that the condition of farmers in their state had worsened – this trend was greater in the hills than in the plains. However, many voters in the hills (both Garhwal and Kumaon) did not consider farmers’ issues as voting issues. Less than two out of every 10 in these areas said that the farmers’ movement was a voting issue for them.
However, in the plains, voters were more vocal on peasant issues: about half of them considered the peasant movement to be a very important electoral issue. Nearly three-fifths (58%) also took into account the Lakhimpur Kheri incident while casting their votes (Table 1). In fact, voters of the mountainous farmers families were also adamant on the Lakhimpur Kheri incident because many people did not share their opinion on the removal of Ajay Mishra Teni from the ministry after the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. On the other hand, half the voters of the farmers’ families in the plains agreed that Mr. Teni should have been removed from the Council of Ministers after the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. Even when it came to supporting the farmers’ movement, the support in the plains was much stronger than in the hills (Table 2).
Overall, farmers supported the BJP and this support was even higher (+5%) than voters engaged in non-agricultural occupations. Once the vote choices of the farmers were segregated into different regions, it was found that the BJP had the biggest lead (+41%) over the Congress in the Garhwal region. In the Kumaon and plains, the farmers gave preference to the Congress over the BJP. In Kumaon, Congress’ lead over BJP was +8% among farmer voters. In the plains, the Congress had the highest lead (+11 per cent lead) over the BJP. It was also found that the Congress was slightly ahead of the BJP (with a difference of 3% points) among the farmer households who openly supported the farmers’ movement, while elsewhere the BJP was significantly ahead of the Congress (Table 3).
The peasants’ movement clearly affected the plains more than the hills. Even in the hilly areas, the Garhwal region was not at all affected by the farmers’ movement and extended full support to the BJP. The farmers of Kumaon region accepted the farmers’ movement while voting and those who supported the movement voted for the Congress as did the farmers of the plains.
Jyoti Mishra is a Research Associate at Lokniti-CSDS and Vidhi Goel is an Assistant Professor, School of Liberal Arts, Uttaranchal University, Uttarakhand