Fight and spite

The political tussle between the Thackeray family and the ruling alliance in Maharashtra is fast degenerating into a personal feud

- BY DNYANESH JATHAR

THE FEUD BETWEEN Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and Maharashtra’s ruling coalition led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction and the BJP is fast turning into a personal battle among the key protagonists. Addressing a news conference on November 29, Uddhav’s son and former minister Aditya Thackeray said Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was responsible for allowing Gujarat to walk away with the Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor project, which was initially said to be coming up in Maharashtra. Aditya said the details he got under the RTI (Right to Information) Act showed that the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation had invited Vedanta and Foxconn to sign an MoU for the proposed factory. A joint news conference with the chief minister was also scheduled to make the formal announcement.

“But Fadnavis held a meeting with Vedanta’s Anil Agarwal and then everything changed,” said Aditya.

“Where was this meeting held, what was the agenda, what was discussed, was it held to bring Vedanta-Foxconn to Maharashtra or send it away to Gujarat? Was Shinde aware that such a meeting had taken place?”