Thackeray takes a swipe at Shinde, saying, "CM Eknath Shinde has gone again to perform 'Mujra' in Delhi today... Why do Maharashtra projects go to other states? Why doesn't he speak to the PM about this? Doesn't he have the courage to speak on it?"
A political firestorm has erupted in Maharashtra after Vedanta-Foxconn opted for Gujarat for its ₹1.54 lakh crore semiconductor plant.
Members of the ruling dispensation and the opposition in Maharashtra have been holding each other responsible for the multi-billion project going to neighbouring Gujarat. The joint venture semiconductor project of the Indian conglomerate Vedanta and Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn proposed to be set up near Pune city earlier, will come up in Gujarat now.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Congress have sought to corner the Eknath Shinde-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government following the announcement two days ago that the plant would be set up in Gujarat and not in Maharashtra, while the ruling side accused the opposition of making false claims over the project.
According to the Thackeray government when they were in power, they tried their best to crack the deal so that Maharashtra get the chip plant. However, as soon as Shinde and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took over Maharashtra governance the deal with Vedanta-Foxconn slipped into Gujarat's hand, Thackeray said.
The MVA government, which comprised the Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress, collapsed in June this year after Shinde led a revolt against the Sena leadership.
On the other hand, the Shinde government has accused Thackeray-led MVA government saying it had offered tax concessions on foreign liquor instead of for the project, and if it had done so, the project would have remained in Maharashtra.
In September, Vedanta-Foxconn jointly inked an MoU with the Gujarat government in Gandhinagar to set up the semiconductor and display manufacturing unit in Gujarat. Vedanta, an Indian oil-to-metals conglomerate, and Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn have formed a joint venture to set up the plant in Gujarat.
