Bidadi row: BJP leaders promise land-losing farmers to cancel township project once in power

The BJP claims that data shows that milk worth ₹25 crore is sourced annually from the Bidadi area. | Photo credit: File photo

Opposition BJP leaders, who have increased their opposition to the acquisition of agricultural land for the proposed Bidadi Integrated Township project, visited the affected villages on Wednesday to express solidarity with farmers who are set to lose their land and announced that the BJP-JD(S) coalition will scrap the project if it comes to power in 2028.

Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashok, who was part of a delegation with Leader of the Opposition in the Council Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, BJP state president BY Vijayendra and senior legislators S. Suresh Kumar and CN Ashwath Narayan, said after meeting the Bidadi farmers that there was no point in continuing the land acquisition by Chief Minister DK Shivadkumar.

Short term

“It is certain that Chief Minister DK Shivakumar cannot implement this project as he has only one-and-a-half years left in his tenure,” Mr. Ashok stated. Accusing the Congress government of wrongly claiming that the acquired land was barren, he said all the land in Bidadi was fertile.

Mr. Ashok, who visited the primary co-operative milk collection center at Bidadi, said data showed that milk worth ₹25 crore is purchased annually from the area. Similarly, the agriculture sector in the area earned ₹35 crore annually.

About restoring lives

Refuting the argument that farmers could rebuild their lives with compensation, Mr. Ashok gave an example of his own family: “My family got a compensation of ₹65,000 for 65 acres that was acquired long ago in Jalahalli from Bengaluru. But we didn’t have a single paisa left from that compensation.”

He accused senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of practicing a double standard, noting that Mr Gandhi, who visited the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to express concern over environmental destruction over the port project, was now silent on his own party’s government’s move to acquire fertile agricultural land for the township project.

State BJP president BY Vijayendra took exception to Mr Shivakumar, claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had felicitated him for taking up the Bidadi Township project and asked him not to drag Mr Modi’s name for his own selfish political interests.

‘Using goondas’

Mr. Vijayendra alleged that the Congress government was using goondas to terrorize the defiant farmers. He urged the Chief Minister to desist from such illegal measures of forcible land acquisition.

Published – 17 Jun 2026 21:08 IST