Jagjit Singh Dallewal

Jagjit Singh Dallewal, from Faridkot, is president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur). He took over in 2017 after its founder, Pishora Singh Sidhupur, died of a heart attack. When the Samyukta Kisan Morcha readmitted Balbir Singh Rajewal after the 2022 Punjab elections, Dallewal, who had criticised Rajewal's decision to contest them, left with a few members and formed the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political), which he spread into Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. In November 2022 he fasted against remarks by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and ended it after a government apology. ThePrint noted in February 2024 that critics accused him of closeness to the Punjab government and of serving an RSS agenda through a link with an RSS-affiliated kisan body. Those are the critics' claims.

Farmers camped at the Shambhu and Khanauri points on the Punjab-Haryana border from 13 February 2024, after security forces stopped them, until Punjab Police cleared both sites on 19 March 2025. Dallewal's indefinite fast, begun in November 2024, drew the Supreme Court into the dispute.

The fast, in order

• 26 November 2024: he began an indefinite fast at Khanauri for a legal guarantee of MSP, with other demands including the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, a debt waiver and compensation for the families of those who died in the 2020 to 2021 agitation. The Wire reported that he is a cancer patient and had lost 15 kg by the 28th day.
• 13 December 2024: a Supreme Court bench led by Justice Surya Kant asked Punjab and the Centre to give him medical aid without forcing him to break the fast, unless that was needed to save his life.
• 18 January 2025: after the Centre proposed talks, he agreed to take medical aid but did not end the fast.
• 19 March 2025: Punjab Police detained him and other farm leaders and cleared the Shambhu and Khanauri sites. He was moved between hospitals and was in Park Hospital, Patiala, from 24 March to 3 April.
• 28 March 2025: Punjab's Advocate General told the Supreme Court that he had broken his 123-day fast and accepted water. Justice Kant said Dallewal is a genuine farmer leader with no political agenda. The SKM (Non-Political) strongly denied that the fast had ended.
• 6 April 2025: he ended the fast at a Kisan Mahapanchayat at Sirhind, saying he accepted the wish of the sangat and that the morcha would go on. Reports differ on its length: The Tribune says 131 days, PTI (in ThePrint) 130, Deccan Chronicle 132. The start and end dates are 131 days apart.

Both accounts of when the fast ended are on record: the state's report of 28 March, and the farmers' own end of the fast on 6 April.

What he is remembered for: a fast of more than four months for a guaranteed price for crops, and the Supreme Court's public words about him. After ending it he said the demand for an MSP guarantee remained to be won.