BJP’s UP Chief & Other MLAs Oppose Land Bill Passed By State Assembly; What Is The Bone Of Contention?

Lucknow: In an unprecedented opposition to a bill passed by the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly, the state’s BJP chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary has said that the proposed law had the potential of acting against the interest of the party and could also create an anarchic situation in the state, harming public interest at large.

His comment came a day after Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council referred the Nazul land bill to its select committee, the first time this has happened vis-a-vis any legislation since the BJP came to power in the state in 2017.

The contentious bill empowers the state to reclaim Nazul properties (government properties), which have been leased out to private individuals and entities, for public use and development activities.

The Yogi Adityanath government had passed the bill in the assembly after getting it approved by the Cabinet.

But with the saffron party still reeling under the Lok Sabha setbacks at the hands of Samajwadi Party (SP), the legislation appears to have come at the wrong time, opening up talk on whether there’s a BJP versus BJP narrative in the state.

However, this bill was stalled in the Upper House on Friday after Chaudhary, who is also a member of the Vidhan Parishad, opposed the bill and demanded that it be referred to the select committee for wider discussions.

“I opposed the bill after receiving feedback from our MLAs, mostly those from cities, that any such unpopular law at this juncture could harm the interests of the party,” Hindustan Times quoted Chaudhary as saying.

“Besides, the government’s move to get the Nazul land, over which buildings have been standing for decades vacated now following the enactment of the law could have led to chaos in cities. On the one hand, the government is building houses for people, on the other hand the same government will be demolishing houses built on the Nazul land,” he added.

A political row has broken out over the Uttar Pradesh Nazul Properties (Management and Utilization for Public Purposes) Bill, 2024, with even Opposition parties SP and Congress being vocal against it.

SP MLAs RK Verma, Sandeep Singh and Kamal Akhtar called the bill “draconian and autocratic”.

SP chief Akhilesh called it a bill for “destruction of homes.”

“BJP is against those with houses, families… the BJP will render poor the homeless to benefit land mafias… The inhuman Nazul land bill must be withdrawn,” he said.

Nishad party (a BJP ally) MLA Anil Kumar Tripathi called the bill “anti-people”, Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) chief Raghuraj Pratap Singh objected to it emphatically, and so did Congress MLA Aradhana Mishra Mona.

Among BJP MLAs, those who are opposed to the bill are Sidharth Nath Singh, Harshvardhan Bajpai and Raghuraj Pratap Singh.

“It is for you to interpret it as an embarrassment or otherwise, but what has happened is procedural. After Wednesday’s developments in the assembly over the bill, it was the government that chose to send the bill to the select committee,” said Sidharth, the MLA from Allahabad West and a former UP minister, about the bill being referred to the select committee.