Deputy Chief Minister of Haryana, Dushyant Chautala is currently in a tight spot due to the farmer’s protests. There are hints that the alliance between his party-JJP and CM Khattar’s BJP might be broken due to the farmers’ protests. Chautala met Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Saturday regarding the farm laws, which are with major loopholes and have stirred protest across the country. During the meeting, Chautala asserted that minimum support price (MSP), among the key demands of agitating farmers against the farm laws, will be ensured to each farmer as long as they are a part of the state government. He has also met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi a day after the former announced that he will resign from his post in the Haryana government if he is unable to ensure minimum support price (MSP) for the procurement of farmers’ crops.

Chautala also said that he is hopeful that the next round of talks between the Centre and the farmers will be held “in the next 24 to 48 hours” and will lead to a conclusive result.  The meeting comes as farmers have intensified their agitation against the three farm-laws enacted in September. On Saturday, farmers blocked Delhi-Agra and Jaipur highways and held demonstrations at various places.

While the government has assured the farmers over MSP, the agitating farmers are demanding an act for the scheme instead of a “written guarantee,” promised by the Union agriculture minister earlier. Dungar Singh, a farm leader from Uttar Pradesh, said, “We want MSP of all our produce including potatoes, sugarcane, grains, vegetables, and milk. We do not want this guarantee in written form but we want a law for MSP now.”

Meanwhile, farmers announced that they will hold a hunger strike on December 14 as they gave a call for nationwide agitation. They also announced to take out a tractor march on Sunday from Shahjahanpur in Rajasthan and said that they will block the Jaipur-Delhi main road.

The BJP holds power in Haryana with its 40 seats out of the 90-seat Haryana Assembly, and the support of 10 JJP MLAs and five independent MLAs. Congress, on the other hand, has 31 seats. This development of Chautala’s meetings comes when thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, are protesting at the gates of the national capital against the three recent farm-laws passed by the Central government with support pouring from all quarters.

The farmer-leaders are engaging with a delegation of the Central government in several rounds of talks to resolve their differences; however, all the meetings have remained inconclusive so far.