Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday, 24 June 2026, sharply criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party over the state of the Varuna River in Varanasi, posting a pointed couplet on X that accused the ruling party of presiding over parched farmland while the river turned green with pollution.

The post, in Hindi, reads: 'Khet sookhe nadi hariyaai, jab se hai BJP aayi' — translated as 'Fields have dried up, the river has turned green, ever since the BJP came.' The hashtag #वरूणा_नदी_वाराणसी (Varuna River Varanasi) anchors the message squarely in the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Context

The Varuna River is a tributary of the Ganga that flows through the heart of Varanasi. It has long been flagged in public discourse for severe pollution caused by urban sewage discharge and industrial effluents. The river's greenish tint — a visible marker of algal bloom driven by untreated waste — has become a recurring symbol in political debates about governance in the city.

Yadav's couplet draws a deliberate contrast: farmers facing water scarcity in their fields while a river running through the same district chokes with pollutants. The two-line verse is crafted for maximum recall and shareability, a format Yadav has used before to make pointed political arguments.

Policy Backdrop

The Namami Gange programme, launched by the central government in 2014, was designed as an integrated conservation mission for the Ganga basin, explicitly including tributaries such as the Varuna. The scheme allocated dedicated funding for sewage treatment plants, pollution abatement works, and riverfront development across the basin.

Despite sustained spending under the programme, opposition parties have consistently argued that visible improvements in tributary water quality have not kept pace with the scale of investment. The BJP has governed Uttar Pradesh since 2017 and has held power at the centre since 2014, making it the primary political target for any critique of river-cleaning outcomes in the state.

During Akhilesh Yadav's tenure as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 2012 to 2017, the state government emphasised minor irrigation and check-dam projects to address agricultural water scarcity in eastern districts, including those around Varanasi.

Stakeholders and Impact

Farmers in Varanasi and surrounding districts are the primary stakeholders in the irrigation dimension of Yadav's critique. Eastern Uttar Pradesh has significant dependence on canal and groundwater irrigation, and any gap in water availability during the growing season carries direct economic consequences for smallholder cultivators.

Varanasi residents, particularly those living along the Varuna's banks, bear the immediate health and livelihood burden of river pollution. The river's condition also carries symbolic weight: Varanasi is not only the Prime Minister's parliamentary constituency but one of India's most prominent religious and cultural centres, making the state of its waterways a politically sensitive subject.

Indian opposition parties have routinely linked persistent pollution in Ganga tributaries to questions about the real-world efficacy of centrally sponsored river projects. Varanasi has seen repeated political exchanges between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party on whether infrastructure spending has translated into measurable improvements in water quality and farm water availability.

What's Next

The Central Pollution Control Board's annual water quality data for the Varuna will be closely watched as an objective measure against which political claims on both sides can be assessed. Any supplementary budget allocations for tributary works under Namami Gange will also draw scrutiny from opposition benches in Parliament and the Uttar Pradesh assembly.

With Varanasi perpetually in the political spotlight as the Prime Minister's seat, the condition of the Varuna River is unlikely to fade as a flashpoint. Yadav's post signals that the Samajwadi Party intends to keep local environmental grievances at the centre of its campaign narrative against BJP governance in the state.