Modi asked Ratan Tata to shift aircraft complex from Maharashtra to Gujarat: Sharad Pawar

The Opposition criticised the ruling Mahayuti government, accusing it of pulling out all development projects out of Maharashtra and taking them to Gujarat.  

After the inauguration of Tata Aircraft Complex in Vadodara, Gujarat, on Monday, the Opposition criticised the ruling Mahayuti government, accusing it of pulling out all development projects out of Maharashtra and taking them to Gujarat.  

Nationalist Congress Party [NCP] [SP] chief Sharadchandra Pawar on Tuesday claimed that the Final Assembly Line (FAL) of the Tata Advanced Systems and Airbus that was inaugurated in Gujarat on Monday, was initially set up in Maharashtra’s Nagpur. 

“Ratan Tata wanted the project to come up in Maharashtra, and in consultation with him, a 500-acre plot in Nagpur MIDC area was marked for it. This was during the Manmohan Singh-led government, of which I was a part. But when our government changed and Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, he called Ratan Tata and asked him to set up the factory in Gujarat,” Mr. Pawar said while campaigning for his grand-nephew and NCP [SP] nominee from the Baramati Assembly constituency, Yugendra Pawar who is contesting against his uncle, Ajit Pawar. 

He further alleged that thousands of jobs were snatched from Maharashtra since the BJP came to power.   

In Mumbai, Shiv Sena [UBT] leader Aaditya Thackeray held a press conference at Matoshree, the residence of the Thackerays. Mentioning the inauguration of Tata Aircraft Complex in Vadodara, he said, “The roadshow from the Vadodara airport to the Tata Aircraft Complex by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Spain President Pedro Sanchez was nothing but rubbing salt into the wounds of Maharashtra’s youth.”  

“The Tata-Airbus project was to come up in MIHAN in Nagpur, but the ruling Mahayuti took it to Gujarat. A similar thing happened with the Vedanta Foxconn project that was taken to Gujarat in 2022. BJP is pushing all the Maharashtra’s investment and money to Gujarat. They [BJP] are determined that they will not bring a single project to Maharashtra whether the State votes for them or not. The BJP is not bothered about the youth of Maharashtra and the rising unemployment. The Tata-Airbus project was not a Make-in-India venture but an ‘Assemble-in-India’ facility,” he alleged.   

Later in the day, Mr. Thackeray took to X [formerly Twitter] and alleged that the government led by Eknath Shinde and the BJP was hurting the commercial interests of Mumbai by reducing the fleet size of the BEST buses in Mumbai from 3,500 earlier to 2,500 buses now. “At its peak, BEST’s ridership is 33 lakhs and now the buses have suddenly been reduced to almost 2,500 and they plan to cut it even further by slowly defunding the BEST. The BEST is one of the most affordable public transports in the world and Uddhav Thackerayji had started off a project to raise the fleet to 10,000 electric buses and 900 double-decker electric buses by 2027, as required by Mumbai.”