In a politically-loaded statement, farmers leader Rakesh Tikait on Thursday said that if the government did not address their concerns their tractors would roll into West Bengal, the state going to polls in April. The farmers have been protesting for the past three months demanding the repeal of new farm laws.

“The prices of crops have not gone up, but fuel prices have increased. If Centre ruins the situation, we’ll take our tractors to West Bengal as well. Farmers are not getting MSP there also,” BKU’s Rakesh Tikait said in Haryana’s Kharak Punia.

West Bengal elections are due in April and the Bharatiya Janata Party is engaged in a keen, often violent,  battle with the ruling Trinamool Congress party. The saffron party is seeking to make inroads in the state where they have steadily grown taking their Lok Sabha seat tally to 18 in 2019 from 2 in 2014.

Making it clear that farmers will not harvest crops until their demands are met, Tikait said, “Centre should not be under any misconception that farmers will go back for crop harvesting. If they insist, then we will burn our crops. They shouldn’t think that protest will end in 2 months. We’ll harvest as well as protest.”

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Tikait’s warning came on the day farmers are holding a rail roko to press for their demands. The blockade of railways comes as the third major demonstration by farmers, after the January 26 tractor rally and February 6 nationwide ‘chakka jam.’

The farmers’ union and the Centre have held 11 rounds of talks without any breakthrough.