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

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashok, who was part of the delegation with Leader of the Opposition in the Council Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, BJP State president B.Y. Vijayendra and senior legislators S. Suresh Kumar and C.N. Ashwath Narayan, told mediapersons after meeting Bidadi farmers that there was no point in Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar continuing with “forced” land acquisition.

Short term

“It is for sure that Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar cannot implement this project as he just has one and a half years left in his term,” Mr. Ashok maintained. Accusing the Congress government of wrongly claiming that the lands being acquired were barren, he said all the land parcels in Bidadi were fertile.

Mr. Ashok, who visited a primary co-operative milk collection centre in Bidadi, said the data showed that about one crore litres of milk were being procured annually from the area by the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), with payments of about ₹1 crore. Similarly, the sericultural sector in the area was earning a revenue of ₹35 crore a year.

On rebuilding lives

Seeking to debunk the argument that farmers could rebuild their lives with the compensation, Mr. Ashok cited the example of his own family, “My family was given a compensation of ₹65,000 for 65 acres that was acquired long ago in Jalahalli of Bengaluru. But not even a single paisa from this compensation is left with us.”

He accused Congress's top leader, Rahul Gandhi, of practising double standards by remarking that Mr. Gandhi, who had visited the Andaman-Nicobar Islands to express concern over environmental destruction over the port project, was now silent over his own party government’s move to acquire fertile farm lands for township project.

BJP State president B.Y. Vijayendra took exception to Mr. Shivakumar claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hailed him for taking up 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 terrorise the resisting farmers. He urged the Chief Minister to desist from such illegal measures to forcibly acquire land.