Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 | Did Adani have a stake in bringing BJP to power in the state? Opposition questions

Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Priyanka Chaturvedi on Tuesday raised questions about Gautam Adani's involvement in BJP forming the government in Maharashtra, citing "an interview given to a digital platform by a senior minister in the cabinet."

In a post on X, the Sena (UBT) leader said, "As per an interview given to a digital platform by a senior minister in the cabinet, Gautam Adani has sat through in meetings to decide how to get BJP to power in Maharashtra by trying to fix unlikely alliances. It raises some serious questions:

- Is he a BJP authorised negotiator?

- has he been given the responsibility to fix alliances?

- why is a businessman so keenly and closely working to bring BJP to power at any cost in Maharashtra?

Bol Dharavi Bol."

Furthermore, Congress leader Pawan Khera questioned in a post on X, "When you think nothing can be more shocking about this nexus between Modi & Adani, a new example of brazenness comes out. How can a business man be officially allowed to be part of the negotiations to dethrone governments?"

He shared a video of NCP head Ajit Pawar claiming to have been in meetings where Adani was present.

Its was the Mahayuti government that led the push for the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP), which had been pending for a little over two decades. This led to Adani bagging the project.

After winning the $619 million bid last year, Adani Group plans to convert the 240 hectare (594 acre) slum into a modern city hub, but it has already faced protests from opposition political parties who say it received undue favours from the state government in awarding the contract.

Currently the project faces major hurdles, as only those who lived in Dharavi before the year 2000 will get free homes in the redevelopment and a lot of the land needed to rehabilitate people - at least 580 acres for now - will be to provide housing to the roughly 700,000 people considered ineligible.

To build homes for those ineligible people, the Adani joint venture applied to various local and federal agencies for more land, but has yet to secure any, SVR Srinivas, head of the Dharavi Redevelopment Authority, said.

The opposition's allegations come ahead of assembly elections in the state, which are set to be held on November 20, with results on November 23.

(With DHNS and Reuters inputs)

Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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