Punjab Farmer Protests Over Power Cuts Put AAP and BJP on the Back Foot

A fresh wave of farmer protests in Punjab, triggered by unannounced power cuts while the paddy crop ripens, has renewed rural anger against the ruling Aam Aadmi Party in the state and the BJP-led government at the Centre, while offering the Congress a possible opening ahead of the 2027 Assembly election.

In the second such protest reported within a week, activists from BKU Ekta Sidhupur, Azad Kisan Morcha and other unions blocked roads in the Malwa region and staged sit-ins outside PSPCL offices and grids. Farmers said outages stretched to three or four hours a day, often in broken spells, even though the standing crop needs water. Drying fields, they warned, put transplanting costs, land rent and input investments at risk, with diesel backup eating into already thin margins. Where canal water is also scarce, the tubewell is not optional. The unions reminded the state government of its promise of eight hours of uninterrupted farm power.

Kisan Mazdoor Morcha has folded the same grievance into a wider 12-point charter and carried the protest to ministers' homes and the Assembly Speaker's residence. Power supply tops the demand charter submitted last week by an umbrella of 32 farmer unions.

The charter also seeks MSP procurement for crops beyond wheat and paddy, including basmati, maize, moong, mustard and potato; debt waiver for farmers and workers; action on floods, groundwater and pollution; withdrawal of proposed electricity and seed bills; rejection of the India-US trade pact as the unions frame it; dropping of cases from earlier agitations; and scrapping of land pooling.

Even after the 32-union umbrella lifted a week-long sit-in at the Chandigarh-Mohali border, the electricity-led agitation remains alive. The sit-in was called off after Punjab Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian gave a written assurance that a special session of the Vidhan Sabha would be convened within a month to bring a proposal for a one-time settlement scheme for farm debt waiver.

The umbrella includes the Bharati Kisan Union (BKU) Lakhowal, BKU Rajewal led by Balbir Singh Rajewal, BKU Dakaunda, Kirti Kisan Union, All India Kisan Sabha, BKU Shadipur and the Punjab Kisan Union.

Sarwan Singh Pandher of Punjab's Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee said the Samyukta Kisan Morcha is demanding resolution of river water disputes on the riparian principle, abolition of Sections 78, 79 and 80 of the Reorganisation Act 1966, a complete loan waiver for farmers and agricultural labourers, and opposition to the proposed free trade agreement with the United States. Other demands include fixing MSP at C2 plus 50 per cent for all produce except wheat and paddy, repeal of the Dam Safety Act, the Electricity Amendment Act and the Seeds Bill, and a monthly social security allowance of Rs 10,000 for farmers and labourers.

BKU Rajewal's Balbir Singh Rajewal flagged the depletion of Punjab's water table as another concern raised with authorities. He said experts warn that water will run out in the state by 2039, creating a dire situation, and that memorandums and long protests have failed to draw government attention.

On the AAP government's record, Pandher said debt remains the largest unpaid item. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann called freeing farmers a top priority but mostly sought a national waiver from Delhi, he said, adding that relief has been narrow, limited to some SC corporation write-offs and higher KCC limits, with talk of an OTS scheme only in September 2026. There is still no blanket waiver of cooperative and bank farm debt, he said.

Farmer leaders said diversification was promised through procurement of moong, maize, basmati and other crops along with a DSR incentive. Some moong buying took place, but a stable statewide guarantee on par with wheat and paddy did not materialise. Procurement of summer moong has been inconsistent: the crop was cultivated across 1.08 lakh acres with an MSP of Rs 7,275 in 2022, yet state procurement stayed nominal, agencies withdrew entirely between 2024 and 2026, and Punjab was excluded from the Centre's Price Support Scheme, leaving farmers to sell below MSP to private traders. Legal MSP remains beyond the state's powers, as only Parliament can legislate it.

Pandher also cited unpaid compensation for tractors and trolleys lost at Shambhu and Khanauri as the sharpest AAP-specific charge, along with compulsory land pooling rolled back in 2025 and then made optional, repeated water-sharing promises, and pending cane dues and a Rs 500 per quintal price.

On the Centre's side, the BJP's farmer pledges rest on manifesto and budget lines as well as the written assurances of 9 December 2021 that ended the year-long Delhi-border stir, which unions treat as the real contract and the real breach. Despite schemes such as PM-KISAN, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Kisan Credit Card, e-NAM, the Soil Health Card Scheme, the Agricultural Infrastructure Fund and the Digital Agriculture Mission, farmers are pressing for legal MSP beyond wheat and paddy and implementation of the Swaminathan report. Doubling farm income by 2022 is scored as unmet, and union leaders say cases registered during the agitation have yet to be dropped.

With AAP owning the broken supply on the ground and the BJP owning the central pool, farm policy and the trade and legal fights tied to the charter, rural anger cuts two ways at once. The Congress, out of office in both Chandigarh and Delhi, is positioned to ride that discontent without carrying the burden of incumbency.