Loss of Vedanta-Foxconn, Tata-Airbus projects snowballs in Maharashtra politics

Maharashtra losing two back-to-back mega industrial projects—the Vedanta-Foxconn and Tata-Airbus—to the neighbouring state of Gujarat escalated to a full-blown blame game between the current Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis dispensation and the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

While the Shinde-Fadnavis government assured that bigger, better projects, including a textile park, were coming to Maharashtra—for which announcement is expected early next year. “Both of them, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have assured us that some mega projects are being planned for Maharashtra…you will see the developments in the coming days,” Shinde said during an informal chat with media persons on Sunday.

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Addressing a press conference on Monday, Deputy Chief Minister Fadnavis announced that the Union government and the state government were working on a textile park/cluster to be set up in Maharashtra.

The assertion from Shinde and Fadnavis came on a day when Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar announced in New Delhi that an electronics manufacturing cluster would come in Ranjangaon, Pune, at a cost of Rs 500 crore.

Fadnavis said that a lot of work was being done towards it, however, some people were trying to create a false narrative.

According to Fadnavis, the Centre has allotted the biggest ever project in India—a super refinery project in Nanar—but because of Shiv Sena’s opposition, the project could not take off. “It entailed an investment of Rs 3 lakh crore,” he said, adding that alternative sites were being looked at. “Come what may, we will ensure that the project comes to Maharashtra,” he said.

Both Shinde and Fadnavis, have maintained that the Vedanta-Foxconn and Tata-Airbus projects went out of the state during the MVA regime and that the erstwhile government did nothing to secure the project and let it go. “As Leader of Opposition, I tried my best that these two projects remain in Maharashtra, but the companies have made up their mind to go out because of the response and the (investment) climate,” said Fadnavis.

Shiv Sena leader and former minister Aaditya Thackeray said that the Shinde-Fadnavis duo were trying to mislead the people of the state. “It is because of their ineffectiveness that the project has slipped out of the state,” Thackeray said.