NEW DELHI: On January 28, when an emotional Rakesh Tikait said that he will sit on a hunger strike and will drink water only when it comes from his village, it was not just water that he sought on an evening when the protest in Ghazipur was going downhill.
It was an appeal to his fellow farmers from Western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to come and give a much-needed boost to the stir against the Centre’s three contentious farm laws.
Later that night, a charged-up crowd of farmers from UP and Haryana swarmed the site of the Ghazipur protest.
Clearly Tikait’s emotional appeal did the trick. However, the Bhartiya Kisan Union leader did not stop at that. On January 29, he decided to call a mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar.
The overwhelming response to the Muzaffarnagar mahapanchayat perhaps set up a new template for show of strength by the farmers, who have been braving government’s strategy to tire them out.
It has been a week since then and a number of mahapanchayats have been conducted by farmer leaders in places like Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Meerut, Bijnor, Baghpat, Dausa, and Jind.
BKU leader Rakesh Tikait, Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav and Gurnam Singh Charuni will also address a Kisan Mahapanchayat at Sunhera-Junhera (Haryana–Rajasthan border) in Nuh region on Sunday.
The response has been encouraging and thousands of farmers have come together against the farm laws.
What is a mahapanchayat
In Western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, mahapanchayats are sacrosanct and have a major stronghold on these states’ politics.
Panchayat is an assembly of five village leaders and is mostly held to address agricultural, social or electoral issues.
A mahapanchayat is a gathering of people from around 10-12 villages. These meetings are conducted by village Khap panchayats.
Declared illegal by the Supreme Court, Khaps have faced flak for their regressive diktats.
Interestingly, mahapanchayats have played a varied role and also came into the picture during the 2013 communal riots of Muzaffarnagar.
“Our people respect whatever Khap decides for us and we will abide by it, Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Virendra Dagar told TOI. “Khaps have kept us united. We listen to the concern of our people and their problems are solved.”
According to Kisan Shakti Sangh farmer leader Pushpendra Chaudhary, mahapanchat is playing a crucial role in the mobilisation of farmers.
“The farmers are not being allowed to visit Delhi and these regional panchayats are being conducted to garner support for the movement”, he said.
“We mobilise farmers from 10-12 villages in one mahapanchayat and inform them about our demands from the Centre. We tell the number of family members needed from each family, the number of tractors required, etc. We discuss the things we have to decide for the movement.” Puspendra said.
“At least 10,000 farmers are visiting the protest sites around Delhi out of 1 lakh farmers attending each of these mahapanchayats,” Chaudhary added.
We will conduct these mahapanchayats regularly, he added.
2022 Uttar Pradesh elections and the relevance of mahapanchayat
While the success of mahapanchayats in UP and Haryana have given the farmers’ movement a boost, it may be a cause for concern for the governments in the two states.
Mahapanchayats and its decisions have a strong and lasting impact on the people, more so in the states of UP and Haryana.
“The people have tremendous respect for the decisions taken by these mahapanchayats and it is here we decide who we have to vote for during the elections’, Virendra Dagar said.
It is like a daughter obeying his father, Kisan Shakti Sangh farmer leader Pushpendra said.
The concept of mahapanchayats is an integral part of the Jat community. They have also become a base to garner electoral support and hold immense political clout.
The Jat community is in sizable number in 19 districts of Western Uttar Pradesh region and constitutes roughly 2% of the state’s population.
This stronghold was well utilised by the Bharatiya Janata Party during the 2017 assembly elections.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP won 20 seats out of the 27 Western UP region Lok Sabha constituencies and 66 of the total 76 seats of the region in the last assembly elections held in 2017.
With leaders like Tikait acknowledging that he voted for BJP in 2017 elections, the electoral impact of the farmers’ agitation needs to be considered by the political parties.
Uttar Pradesh that goes to polls in 2022, may experience a ripple effect of the farmers’ movement.
If the issue of farmers is not resolved, Jat vote share can become a crucial factor in several seats of the state.
Impact of mahapanchayat on Haryana politics
And it’s not just Uttar Pradesh that is witnessing mobilisation through mahapanchyats. Farmers in Haryana are also following the same template.
Meanwhile, the Jind mahapanchayat was an all-caste meeting and was attended by farmers including the Jats who constitute 29% of Haryana’s population.
They have a strong presence in around 40 of the 90 assembly seats and are politically and economically well off.

In around 53 years of its existence, Haryana has been ruled by Jat chief ministers for 33 years, while non-Jat CMs have run the state only for 20 years.
Manohar Lal Khattar being a non-Jat CM has not been able to pacify the farmers’ movement in the state. Its alliance partner Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) is also under severe pressure from the local Jat leaders to quit the alliance with BJP in the state over the contentious farm laws.
The pressure will exceed with more mahapanchayats.
The protests in Haryana also witnessed a slew of resignations from the likes of JJP leader Inderjit Singh Goraya, BJP’s Rampal Majra and lone INLD MLA Abhay Singh Chautala.
If JJP crumbles under pressure the coalition government in Haryana will fall. And that will not be music to the ears of the BJP.