- Tuesday, May 06, 2025
The state’s opposition Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) has hit out at the current Eknath Shinde-BJP government for what it called as a “tragedy”.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE decision by Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn from its $19.5 billion semiconductor joint venture with India’s Vedanta has reignited the political controversy over the Indian conglomerate choosing the state of Gujarat over Maharashtra last September.
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), led by former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, has hit out at the current Eknath Shinde-led government for what it described as a “tragedy”.
Aaditya Thackeray, son of Uddhav and a former tourism and environment minister of Maharashtra, said the chip project was completely feasible in the state and asked the current government, of which prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata is a part, why it was suddenly shifted to Gujarat.
The 33-year-old leader, who has been vocal over the issue since Vedanta announced the decision to set up the plant in neighbouring Gujarat, which is also the home state of Modi, said the latest development was a loss for India and rued that Maharashtra, the richest Indian state, could have propelled the country’s growth story, the Hindustan Times reported.
He also accused the current government of losing many industrial projects to other states but that the losing of Vedanta-Foxconn to Gujarat was “like rubbing salt on the wounds of Maharashtra”.
In a tweet in Marathi, the Sena (UBT) leader said, “Today we see the effect of shifting this project from Maharashtra which was the most viable option at the last moment! India and the unemployed youth of India have to be deprived of global economic progress! That too only because of the ambitious brutal politics and discrimination of the rulers!”
महाराष्ट्रात पूर्णपणे “feasible” असणारा, पण राजकारणापायी महाराष्ट्राबाहेर पळवला गेलेला 'वेदांता फॅाक्सकॅान' चा प्रकल्प भारतातूनच रद्द होण्याची शक्यता आहे.
विधानसभेत बेकायदेशीर CM नी मोठी घोषणा करून आणि उपमुख्यमंत्र्यांनी भेट देऊनही, हा प्रकल्प अत्यंत व्यवहार्य ठिकाण असलेल्या…
— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) July 10, 2023
Priyanka Chaturvedi, also a Sena (UBT) leader and a parliamentarian, slammed the move saying taking the project away from Maharashtra to Gujarat and said inability to raise funds led to the collapse of an idea even before it began.
While both Foxconn and Vedanta reiterated their commitment to the idea of semiconductor manufacturing in India, the Indian government said Foxconn’s decision to pull out of the venture would not affect India’s semiconductor goal.
“Its not for govt to get into why or how two private companies choose to partner or choose not to, but in simple terms it means both companies can & will now pursue their strategies in India independently, and wth appropriate technology partners in Semicon n Electronics,” minister of state for information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in a tweet.
