Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Tuesday claimed that the Maharashtra government had written to Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal in September, inviting him to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for setting up Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor plant in the state, days before the firm disclosed Gujarat is its pick for the project.
Addressing the media, Aaditya referred to the letter written to Agarwal on September 5 by Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) chief executive officer P Anbalagan, inviting Vedanta, Foxconn and Avanstrate to indicate a convenient time and date for signing a MoU. On September 11, Agawarl had tweeted announcing that the project will come up in Gujarat. This was the second letter sent to Agarwal by the Maharashtra government, inviting him to sign the MoU. On July 26, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had also written to Agarwal, inviting him for the same.
Alleging that the Eknath Shinde–BJP government is lying, Aaditya reiterated his challenge for an open debate with the CM on projects such as Vedanta-Foxconn picking other states over Maharashtra.
“The letter proves that a stage when the MoU could have been signed had come and all talks were finalised… the next step was to sign the MoU. This government keeps lying that the project went out of the state owing to the failure of the MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) government,”Aaditya said.
“If this project was not going to come up in Maharashtra, then why was this letter sent for MoU signing?” Aaditya asked. “So who is lying? Is the deputy chief minister or the industries minister lying? The unconstitutional chief minister does not speak, as if he does not know anything,” he said.
Rejecting Aaditya’s allegations, state Industries Minister Uday Samant said the MoU was never signed. The state government, the CM and his deputy had requested Agarwal to sign an MoU, but he tweeted a decision about Gujarat had already been taken, the minister claimed.
“To sign the MoU, a high-power committee meeting should have taken place. It happened on July 15 after directions from the chief minister Shinde. For eight months during the MVA tenure, the high-power committee meeting did not take place,” Samant said.