Shiv Sena chief and former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday launched a blistering attack against his successor Eknath Shinde for not raising the issue of the multi-billion dollar Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor plant deal with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. BJP and Shinde faction have been facing the ire of the opposition for losing the Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor plant deal to Gujarat.
"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?" he asked rhetorically.
Uddhav Thackeray was addressing around 25,000 Shiv Sainiks who packed the NESCO convention centre at Goregaon.
Shiv Sena leader and former industries minister Subhash Desai earlier questioned if the central government was trying to divert investments and mega projects from Maharashtra to Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi where assembly elections are due later this year.
But Uddhav faction sees it as a larger flight of capital encouraged by the BJP to gradually diminish Maharashtra’s importance in the industries and finance sectors, claiming that the move is meant to eventually sever Mumbai from Maharashtra. Thackeray accused the BJP and the Shinde faction MLAs of treating Mumbai like a piece of lucrative real estate and no more.
“These vultures are moving in for the kill. They want to capture Mumbai. They are hovering over Mumbai to grab the spoils,” he said at the meeting of the party’s gat pramukhs, Sena's primary organisational cadre.
{{/usCountry}}“These vultures are moving in for the kill. They want to capture Mumbai. They are hovering over Mumbai to grab the spoils,” he said at the meeting of the party’s gat pramukhs, Sena's primary organisational cadre.
{{/usCountry}}Thackeray also challenged Union home minister Amit Shah, who had exhorted BJP workers to trounce the Sena in the BMC polls, to hold the civic and state assembly elections in the next month or so.
“You (the BJP) remember Mumbai only when the elections are here. But where are these vultures when Mumbai is in danger? For you, Mumbai is a land that can be sold per square foot, but for us, this is our motherland which has been secured after the martyrdom of 105 people,” he charged, referring to the Samyukta Maharashtra movement and its fight to ensure that Mumbai stayed part of Maharashtra.
Responding to the charges, Shinde said, "Our government is two months old and we have taken decisions that were not taken in two years. Vedanta will come to Maharashtra. I have spoken with PM Modi and HM Amit Shah and have been assured. A lot of industries went out of the state because of the previous government."
“They have accused me of being the agent of prime minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah. I am proud of being so, as they fulfilled the dream of Balasaheb Thackeray on the abrogation of article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and the construction of Ram Mandir."
(With ANI inputs)