Summary:
PATNA: Senior BJP functionaries will attend a farmers’ meet to be organised under the banner of Sardar Patel Kisan Samaj Ekta Parishad at Gyan Bhavan here on Sunday. Besides, he integrated the country by bringing around 550 princely states under the Indian Union after Independence,” state BJP spokesman and former MLA Prem Ranjan Patel said. He came to be known as Sardar after he led the peasant movements in Bardoli and Kheda in Gujarat . “Farmers from across the state will participate in the meeting,” BJP national Kisan Morcha functionary from state Saroj Ranjan Patel said.While Union minister of steel Chaudhary Birendra Singh will be the main speaker at the event, Kisan Morcha chief and Lok Sabha MP Birendra Singh Mast will be the notable invitee. State BJP ministers, including deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi , Nand Kishroe Yadav and Mangal Pandey will be the other key speakers.The BJP’s move to pull in farmers under its umbrella is considered significant for two reasons – their fragmentation due to caste divisions and their caste-inspired political affiliations.Observers said like the larger society of the state, the farmers’ body in the state stands fragmented as they are divided in various caste categories and groups – upper castes (savarnas), intermediate castes (backward castes and extremely backward castes), scheduled castes and tribes, as well as minority sections..