Balbir Singh Rajewal

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Balbir Singh Rajewal is an Indian politician. He is the founder of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Rajewal and the Chief Ministerial candidate of the Sanyukt Samaj Morcha (SSM) party for the 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly elections. He came into the limelight after his active participation in the 2020 Indian farmers protest.He began his career as a telegraphist, but he resigned in 1968. He has also worked in the Punjab telephone department. Thereafter, Rajewal became a farmer and started farming in his native village, Rajewal. Later, he also established two rice mills near Rajewal.Apart from farming, he is the president of Malwa College Bondli-Samrala, Punjab. Malwa College Bondli-Samrala.He pursued the profession of Arhtiya (commission agent) in Khanna Mandi, Ludhiana, for a while.Rajewal began his journey as a farm union leader in 1971 when he founded the Punjab Khetibari Union (PKU). Previously known as Punjab Khetibari Zamindari Union, PKU was formed with the collation of eleven peasant groups in Chandigarh in 1972. PKU was renamed Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) in December 1978 to make it a national forum for farmers. After the formation of BKU in Hyderabad on 14 December 1978, Rajewal became its secretary. At BKU, Rajewal joined hands with several notable farmer leaders like Mahendra Singh Tikait, Sharad Anantrao Joshi, and Narayan Swami, for regulating various farmer agitational campaigns.From 1974 to 1988, he was associated with BKU (Lakhowal). Thereafter, he pledged his allegiance to BKU (Mann). In 2001, he introduced his own BKU faction, BKU (Rajewal).In 1974, BKU began its hustle to abolish the restrictions which prevented the farmers to sell their produce at any place across the country. For his active participation in the agitation defying the zonal restrictions, Rajewal was put into jail. [8]The Indian Express.He is also credited with drafting the constitution of the Punjab Khetibari Union, which was adopted by BKU in 1978. In 1983, he fought for the issue of electricity charges for farmers. After various farmers groups parted ways with BKU in 1988, Rajewal remained associated with it.He also runs an honesty shop named Sach Di Dukan (Truths Shop), which has no shopkeeper but only a box for customers to voluntarily deposit money for what they buy.In 1992, his son left his job as a commercial pilot to take over farming from him.