Hanuman Beniwal, head of the RLP | Photo credit: PTI
Key points
- Hanuman Beniwal said he will not forge an alliance with the Congress party
- The head of RLP has opposed the agricultural laws
- In September, Shiromani Akali Dal had resigned from NDA
New Delhi: In a setback for the BJP, its Rajasthani ally the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) cut its ties with the NDA on Saturday over the farmers’ ongoing protest against the three farm laws.
Announcing the split from the NDA at a rally in Shahjahanpur in Alwar district, RLP chief Hanuman Beniwal said: “I left the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) in protest against the three agricultural laws. These laws are against farmers. “
Beniwal, a MP from Rajasthan’s Nagaur Lok Sabha, also said he had left the NDA but will not forge an alliance with the Congress party. The RLP chief further said he was not attached to the BJP-led alliance with Fevicol.
With its departure from the NDA, the RLP has become the second party to resign from the ruling alliance led by the BJP in protest against controversial farm laws. In early September, Shiromani Akali Dal, the BJP’s key ally in Punjab, had left the NDA due to differences with the Center over agricultural laws.
Hanuman Beniwal supporting the farmers’ protest
The RLP chief, who has opposed farm laws and provided support for farmers’ agitation, had previously written a letter to Union Interior Minister Amit Shah, threatening to resign from the NDA if all three laws agricultural were not repealed.
Last week, Beniwal had resigned from three parliamentary committees to support the ongoing agitation.
Beniwal had launched the RLP after resigning from the BJP prior to the Assembly elections in Rajasthan in 2018. A year later, his party joined the BJP for the Lok Sabha elections last year.
Thousands of farmers have been protesting at various Delhi border points for more than four weeks, insisting on the repeal of the Center’s three laws.
So far, the Center has held five rounds of formal talks with farmers’ unions to resolve the issue of three contentious farm laws, but has failed to break out of the deadlock.
Farmers unions have proposed holding a new round of talks with the Center to end the deadlock on the laws on Tuesday.
