Protests over power plant land acquisition shifted voters’ favour to RJD candidate and farmers’ rights advocate Sudhakar Singh
Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) handling of a contentious land acquisition for a power plant may have played a major role in losing the Buxar Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar. Farmers’ demands for compensation over the land acquisition for the plant and subsequent police action against protesting farmers were crucial behind BJP candidate Mithilesh Tiwary losing the seat to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate, Sudhakar Singh, who is widely recognised for his advocacy of farmers’ rights.
Although it might seem surprising that a local issue concerning farmers had such a substantial impact, it played a decisive role in shifting voter sentiment against the BJP in Buxar, a constituency near Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stronghold Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. Buxar shares a border with Ballia and Ghazipur districts in UP.
“Hundreds of farmers voted against the BJP to teach them a lesson for ignoring genuine demands. The brutal police action against farmers staging a peaceful protest backfired, as it was perceived as being sanctioned by the state and central government,” said Haridayal Tiwari, a farmer from Banarpur village.
This sentiment was echoed by residents of neighbouring villages, such as Mohanpurwa and Kocharhi, where nearly 10,000 villagers have been living in fear since March 2024 following police action against protesters.
SJVN Thermal Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam, is constructing a 1,320 megawatt coal power plant on 1,283 acres of land in Buxar. The plant will be divided into two 660-MW units each. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the project on March 9, 2019, which will use greenfield supercritical thermal power technology and cost approximately Rs 11,000 crore.
Farmers have been demanding compensation for the land for the power plant based on the new land rate. Last year, hundreds of farmers staged a protest that went on for over 500 days and later turned violent.
On March 24, 2024, just days after the announcement of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, police allegedly intervened against farmers protesting. This move enraged farmers, who saw it as an attempt by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to quash their long-standing protest.
“The police named 60 farmers and 300 unidentified individuals in an FIR for allegedly attacking police and disrupting construction work. We were victims of police action aimed at ending our protest for rightful compensation,” said Amit Tiwary, a farmer.
“We are victims because the police used force to end the farmers’ protest. Hundreds of farmers clashed with police when they used baton charges, vandalised the protest site, broke into village homes, assaulted women and abused and insulted them. Police also threatened to frame us in false cases if we continued the protest. Several farmers were also injured in the police action,” Tiwary added.
Priyanka Tiwary, a young woman, stated that farmers’ rage spread throughout Buxar and neighbouring districts because farmers were also dissatisfied with the government’s decision to deny them minimum support price (MSP) on their produce. Taking this factor into consideration, RJD candidate Singh, who has been repeatedly raising issues of farmers, reached out to people, mainly in rural areas, and promised to fight for them if elected.
“I have assured people, mainly farmers, in one election meeting after another that if the INDIA bloc comes to power, MSP will be provided to them and compensation for land acquisition for the power plant will be given soon. People know that I have been supporting farmers,” Singh said.
Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait also met farmers after police action in April 2024 in Buxar and assured them he would fight for them.
Singh has consistently questioned Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s agricultural policies, alleging corruption and demanding investigations into the state’s agricultural programmes. He has mobilised farmers to demand MSP and the revival of the mandi (wholesale market) system, which was dismantled in 2006 when the NDA government repealed the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act.
Mithilesh Tiwary, a newcomer to the electoral scene, faced backlash from angry farmers questioning the BJP’s double standards on agricultural issues. The decision to replace the unpopular incumbent member of Parliament and Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey with Tiwary did not alleviate public dissatisfaction.
The entry of Anand Mishra, a young Indian Police Service officer turned independent candidate, further complicated BJP’s situation by disrupting the party’s calculations. Mishra’s candidacy indicated serious trouble for the BJP in Buxar, contributing to their eventual defeat.
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