Low turnout at BJP's rail-roko agitation

JAIPUR: The state-wide rail-roko protest called by the BJP's farmers' wing, Kisan Morcha, turned out to be flop show on Tuesday. The internal bickering within the party ensured that hardly hundred farmers gathered at any of the protest sites.
Owing to the meagre strength of the protestors, the Kisan Morcha leaders had to do with just token demonstrations and the train movements in the state remained unaffected.At almost each of the three-dozen railway stations in 25 districts where the protests were planned, policemen outnumbered the BJP supporters.
The low turnout of people in favour of the BJP was seen by the political analysts as reflective of the saffron party's complacency about coming to power riding on the ruling Congress's failures. For the past three years, the Opposition BJP has repeatedly been accused of failing to hold noteworthy demonstrations in support of public concerns like high petrol prices or compensation for farmers suffering weather vagaries.
Being the first political demonstration planned by former minister Sanwar Lal Jat after his appointment as the Morcha president, the ruling party too was keeping a close eye on the event. Much to his embarrassment, however, Jat could not even enter the Kishangarh railway station near Ajmer for the protest since only a handful of his supporters turned up for the protest. Police later put the figure of his supporters who courted arrest at 69.
Jat shied away from the media after he was forced to hold a token demonstration outside the Kishangarh railway station. Even as he avoided taking questions from TOI, a press statement released by the Kisan Morcha office in the evening claimed that the event was a hit.
The event aroused political analysts' interest even more as Jat is a close aide of former chief minister and leader of opposition Vasundhara Raje. The event was, as such, linked to Raje's influence, too, on the farmers for whom the Morcha demanded increased support price for wheat and other agricultural benefits from the state government. BJP national president Nitin Gadkari's instructions to the party leaders to bury their differences and demonstrate a united face failed to bring the partymen together for the protest.
In Jaipur, the protest was organised at the Kanakpura railway station on the Jaipur-Ajmer rail track along the Sirsi road on the city outskirts. Kisan Morcha vice-president Kuldeep Dhanka led the protest, but the demonstrators' number barely touched the three-digit figure. After much dithering, the BJP men climbed atop a stationary goods train at the railway station and shouted slogans as long as the photojournalists clicked pictures. Soon the police made the protesters to vacate the station. The two trains crossed the railway station unhindered while the protestors were still there.