Janata Dal (Secular) supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda demanded that the Karnataka government drop the Bidadi Township project, arguing that it would deprive a large number of small farmers of their livelihoods.

He was speaking at a rally at Freedom Park on Tuesday, held as the culmination of the padayatra led by the party’s Youth Wing president Nikhil Kumaraswamy against the project.

Mr. Gowda pointed out that farmers owning even a few guntas of land, as well as those engaged in dairy farming, would be severely affected by the project. He stressed that public hearings conducted by former Justices Santosh Hegde and V. Gopala Gowda had recommended dropping the project after assessing the ground realities, but the government was not willing to heed their advice. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, upset over the JD(S) announcing the padayatra on its own and later joining its launch, were conspicuous by their absence at Tuesday’s event.

Mr. Gowda, Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Mr. Nikhil hit back at the Congress and Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who have been pointing out that both the Bidadi Township and NICE Road projects were initiated by JD(S) governments. They argued that several changes had subsequently been made to these projects by successive Congress governments. The Karnataka Congress had termed the two projects the “Siamese twins” of the JD(S).

“Yes, I had considered the proposal for the Bidadi township, but it remained only a proposal and did not even reach the stage of a preliminary notification. As recorded in the Vidhana Sabha proceedings, I had openly stated that I would not go against the farmers and dropped it in full public view,” Mr. Kumaraswamy said, questioning why the Congress, which had opposed the project then, was championing it now. Mr. Nikhil said it was Mr. Shivakumar who had given the project a new lease of life in 2023 by holding meetings and subsequently issuing preliminary and final notifications.

NICE Road

Responding to Mr. Kumaraswamy’s demand that the government take over the NICE Road project and stop the collection of toll following the recent observations of the High Court of Karnataka, Mr. Shivakumar had hit back, arguing that it was the JD(S) that had initiated the project.

Mr. Gowda pointed out that although he had signed the MoU in 1995, the terms and conditions were subsequently revised and the course of the project was altered by successive governments.

“The clause in the MoU stated that NICE could collect toll only after constructing the Bengaluru-Mysuru Road and developing five townships. This was never done, and I have been fighting against this for years,” he said.

Mr. Kumaraswamy alleged that it was Mr. Shivakumar, who chaired the Bengaluru-Mysuru Infrastructure Corridor project in 1999 as the State’s Urban Development Minister, who had granted several permissions to NICE.

He again challenged the Chief Minister to participate in an open debate on the two projects. “I will set the stage. You can bring all your 136 MLAs,” he said. Responding to a similar challenge earlier, Mr. Shivakumar had asked the Union Minister to meet him in the Vidhana Soudha, to which Mr. Kumaraswamy said the debate should happen in Bidadi, a request that the Chief Minister did not accept.

Published - August 18, 2026 09:47 pm IST