Congress accuses government of ‘gifting’ 1,050 acres of land in Bihar’s Bhagalpur to Gautam Adani

The Congress on Monday (September 15, 2025) accused the Centre of allegedly “gifting” 1,050 acres of land in Bihar’s Bhagalpur to the Adani Group for a power plant, alleging this was done because the BJP anticipated defeat in the upcoming Assembly elections.

Addressing a press conference at the party’s headquarters here, the Congress’s media and publicity department head, Pawan Khera, claimed that in Bhagalpur’s Pirpainti in Bihar, 1,050 acres of land has been allocated to industrialist Gautam Adani for setting up a power plant at ₹1 per year for 33 years. He also alleged that to prevent protests during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the area on Monday (September 15, 2025), villagers have been placed under house arrest.

“When elections were held in Maharashtra, the power plant project and Dharavi were given to Gautam Adani just before that. Similarly, in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, projects were given to Gautam Adani before the elections. This is a very long list, and whenever the BJP feels that we will lose the election, gifts are given to Gautam Adani beforehand,” he alleged.

He further claimed that the government has withdrawn from the project in favour of Mr. Adani. “This is a 2,400-megawatt project with a budget of 21,400 crore rupees. It was announced in the Budget. However, at that time, the government had said that it would set up the plant itself. But later, the government backed out and handed over this project to Gautam Adani,” he said.

‘Double loot’

Accusing the government of “double loot”, he said that a plant built on Bihar’s land, with the State’s money, generating electricity using its coal, will be sold to Bihar’s people at ₹6 per unit. 

“Farmers were intimidated, forced to sign with a pencil, and their land was taken. Then, the electricity generated from the same plant will be sold to the people of Bihar at the rate of ₹6.75/unit, while for Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, this rate is ₹3 to ₹4,” he claimed.

There was no immediate reaction from the Centre, the Bihar government or the Adani Group on the allegations.