Patna, March 18: The state unit of the BJP has decided to counter the RJD and the JDU's criticism of the proposed land acquisition bill by raising the plight of farmers in the state.

The state BJP is organising a dharna on Friday to attack chief minister Nitish Kumar on farmers' plight. Top BJP leaders like former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, leader of Opposition in the Assembly Nand Kishore Yadav and BJP state president Mangal Pandey would sit on dharna with 2,000 farmers at the party office on Beer Chand Patel path. The BJP would raise issues such as the state government's paddy procurement record, irregularities in ration card distribution, irregular power supply to farmers, hike in power tariff and others.

BJP state spokesperson Devesh Kumar said: "The JDU and RJD are opposing the land acquisition bill as anti-farmer, but the state government has failed to take initiatives to end farmers' plight." He said the state government has announced minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,360 per quintal of paddy procured and Rs 300 bonus in 2014-15, but the reality is different. Because of negligence by Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), which involves involvement of middlemen, paddy is procured at Rs 900-1,100 per quintal, much below MSP, he said.

The BJP's state unit has also decided to hold farmers' dharnas to showcase their plight. Sources said the BJP wants to divert attention from the land acquisition bill after the frontal attack by the Congress, JDU, RJD and 10 other parties whose MPs marched from Parliament House to Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday.

A senior BJP leader said on condition of anonymity: "We don't want to lose the support of farmers in an agrarian state which is going to see Assembly elections around October this year."

The JDU, however, feels the paddy procurement issue will not help the BJP much. State JDU spokesperson Ajay Alok said: "Though the state government has failed to achieve the targeted paddy procurement, it will do so by the March 31 deadline." Sources said the state has procured around 18 lakh MT, against the targeted 30 lakh MT.

Apart from raising farmers' issues, senior BJP leaders will also highlight how the land acquisition bill would benefit farmers and spread the message how land was important for the state's development. BJP leaders will highlight how land can be acquired under public private partnership (PPP), for building affordable housing, for defence purpose and for rural electrification projects rather than giving farmer land to industrial houses for setting up industry as claimed by the Congress, RJD and JDU leaders.