E-Paper
Centre open to talks with protesting farmers: Goyal
Union minister of commerce & industry, consumer affairs & food & public distribution and textiles Piyush Goyal on Saturday said the Centre was open to talks with farmers to reach an amicable solution
AMRITSAR : Union minister of commerce & industry, consumer affairs & food & public distribution and textiles Piyush Goyal on Saturday said the Centre was open to talks with farmers to reach an amicable solution.
Addressing a press conference in Amritsar, where he campaigned for party candidate Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the Union minister urged the farmers to shun the path of agitation and invited them to get their issues resolved through dialogue.
The Union minister who was one of the members of the central government’s panel that had held discussion with various representatives of farmer unions earlier, said the preliminary discussion between both the sides were held on positive note but could not reach any conclusion due to miscommunication.
Replying to a query regarding trade through the border, he said: “The border trade has not been suspended by India, but by Pakistan.”
Earlier, he paid obeisance at the Golden Temple.
BJP will emerge as biggest party: Rupani
Phagwara: Ahead of the seventh and final phase of polling, Punjab BJP in-charge Vijay Rupani on Saturday claimed that the BJP will emerge as the biggest party.
“In Punjab, the decision taken by the high command to contest elections alone and on all 13 Lok Sabha seats has proven beneficial for us. Until now, we used to contest elections in alliance with SAD and used to fight on only three seats... I can say with certainty that the BJP will emerge as the biggest party. Punjab will send most Lok Sabha members from BJP.”
“The common farmer in Punjab has no problem, these are people from the unions who in the guise of farmers are playing politics. All the farmers are with BJP,” he said.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress-led UPA alliance clinched 8 seats, while the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) managed to secure four. The AAP, which was contesting for the first time in the state won one seat while BJP secured two seats.
In the 2014 elections, the SAD and AAP won 4 seats each, the INC won 3 seats, and the BJP secured 2 seats.
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections are being held in seven phases running from April 25 to June 1. The counting and results will be declared on June 4.
(Inputs from ANI)
