The Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) supported the BJP in earlier elections, but the party “only exploited farmers for its politics”, and “will definitely suffer in the upcoming UP election due to the farmers’ protest”, the union’s leader Naresh Tikait told The Quint.

Speaking to The Quint in an exclusive interview at his residence in Muzaffarnagar’s Sisauli, the farmer leader said that his union regrets supporting the BJP in the past. He also spoke about the union's political allegiance, and the long-lasting impact of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots on the Jat-Muslim unity of the region.