Ahead of civic polls in Maharashtra, battle of perception intensifies over ‘loss’ of big-ticket projects to Gujarat

The latest barb was specifically aimed at Mr. Fadnavis himself given that Nagpur is the Deputy Chief Minister’s ‘borough.’

Ahead of the crucial civic polls in Maharashtra, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) seems to have put the ruling Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government in a spot by raking up the issue of the alleged ‘flight’ of industrial investment and big-ticket projects to neighbouring Gujarat.

Ever since Thackeray family scion Aaditya Thackeray began targeting the ruling Shinde-Fadnavis dispensation in September for ‘losing’ the multi-billion-dollar Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor project to neighbouring Gujarat, the litany of Opposition complaints about mega-projects ceded to the Prime Minister’s State has only been increasing.

The latest controversy surrounds the opportunity ‘lost’ by the three-month old Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in securing the ₹22,000 crore Tata-Airbus project to manufacture several C-295 military transport aircraft in Nagpur’s Multi-modal International Cargo Hub and Airport.

The latest barb was specifically aimed at Mr. Fadnavis himself given that Nagpur is the Deputy Chief Minister’s ‘borough.’

At a press conference on Monday, the BJP leader presented documentary evidence, accusing the MVA of creating “a fake narrative” and asking how a newly-installed government could lose such mega-investment projects.

The youthful Mr. Thackeray hit back at Mr. Fadnavis with equally scrupulous “paper evidence” to prove that the progress which had been made by the former MVA government regarding the Vedanta-Foxconn and the Bulk Drugs Park project was apparently undercut after the formation of the Shinde-Fadnavis government.

The NCP and the Thackeray faction have also demanded how current State Industries Minister Uday Samant could claim an investment figure of ₹25,000 crore if the government was just three months old.