On March 10, the day the votes for the 2022 Assembly elections were counted and the results were announced, NDTV journalist Ravish Kumar, like many other media outlets, hosted a programme in which he discussed the Assembly election results with Yogendra Yadav and other rent-a-cause activists. Since then, a snippet from the programme has been widely shared in which the Yogendra Yadav is heard admitting that he and Rakesh Tikait had created a conducive ‘pitch’ to defeat the BJP by organising a farmers’ movement, but the opposition ‘did not bowl well’ to benefit from it.
In the viral video, Yadav is heard telling NDTV’s Ravish Kumar that the farmer’s movement played a vital role in building the foundation for the opposition parties to defeat BJP in UP but the opposition parties did not play well. He said that the entire Samyukt Kisan Morch (SKM) made a strategy prior to the Uttar Pradesh elections and it was decided unanimously that they will ‘punish’ the BJP in the state of Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming elections. “Rakesh Tikait and I toured the entire UP. But remember, we are not the players. Talking about cricket, our work was like that of the ‘pitch roller’, we laid a conducive pitch for the fast bowlers and seamers but bowling is not our job.”
योगेन्द्र यादव- किसान आंदोलन में हमारा काम था चुनाव की राजनीति के लिए ज़मीन तैयार करना। हमने रोलर चला पिच तैयार की ताकि तेज गेंदबाजों को मदद मिले। पंजाब में established पार्टी पूरी तरह से डिस्क्रेडिट कर दी गयी। pic.twitter.com/66cj5L66Wb
— Ankur Singh (@iAnkurSingh) March 10, 2022
Yadav essentially implied that the Samajwadi Party, the BJP’s main rival in Uttar Pradesh, did not play its role properly despite, they having made all necessary preparations through the farmer’s movement.
Yogendra Yadav, speaking about the political situation in Punjab where the AAP swept the 2022 Assembly polls defeating the incumbent Congress party, stated that the farmer’s movement’s main goal was to completely discredit all of the state’s established political parties, and it acted as a major catalyst in doing so. “I’m not sure who benefited the most from this, but some of our friends ‘got down to the field without pads’ (unprepared). We said it’s not our job to bat or ball; our job is to prepare the pitch… we can tilt (manipulate) the pitch a little, which we did.” At this point, another panellist interjected saying, “Sometimes a baller balls a yorker on the field, but the mistimed delivery results in a full toss…”
In another segment from the same show, Yogendra Yadav admitted that the ‘farmers’ protest was more of a political stunt than an organic protest for farmers’ rights. He said that they are not connected to the people who ball and bat, their work is to solely prepare the pitch, as was the case in West Bengal also. Yadav went on to say that in Bengal, they went door to door urging people to vote against the BJP. “We laid the groundwork, but that does not take away credit from the Trinamool Congress party, which played brilliantly. We did the same thing in Uttar Pradesh…we can only prepare the pitch, but the players must play”, he said.
He is a Dalaal in the form of Aandolanjeevi, Intellectual, Journalist to make way for Opposition parties as he accepted Now openly But we knew already pic.twitter.com/kQGOyb4eCR
— Mai V Journalist (@vishalvhai) March 11, 2022
In another snippet, Yogendra Yadav inadvertently admited that the farmers’ protest was actually a “Chunavi Andolan” (election protest).
Yogendra Yadav Accidently Admitting Farmer Protest was Actually “Election” Protest: “Chunav Andolan” #ElectionResults #YogiWinningUP #YogiAdityanath pic.twitter.com/2krt8vNb8F
— Rosy (@rose_k01) March 10, 2022
Yogendra Yadav had a meltdown as soon as initial trends started predicting BJP’s clear victory in UP
We had earlier reported how on March 10, while analysing the election results along with Prannoy Roy other rent-a-cause activists, Yogendra Yadav started having a meltdown as soon as the initial trends began to predict the BJP’s clear victory in UP.
While the discussion was on, Yogendra Yadav resigned to fate and made a strange comment, giving us a window into the chaos that must be erupting in his head with Yogi set to come back as the CM.
Reportedly, Yogendra Yadav on NDTV said that “The result of a support for dismantling of the republic with the support of the public”. Essentially, saying that the results prove that the people are helping PM Modi, CM Yogi and BJP to dismantle the “republic” which is India.
The first rule of political, and especially electoral analysis, is to not blame the voters. However, Yogendra Yadav’s frustration seems to have driven him to do exactly that. He blamed the people for voting the way they did, alleging that the voters were against India itself by voting for Yogi Adityanath.
