Maharashtra 'loses' yet another lucrative project to Gujarat; opposition targets government

The western Indian state of Maharashtra has seen yet another political controversy erupting after a lucrative project worth Rs 22,000 crore (£2.31 billion) went to neighbouring Gujarat.

Aaditya Thackeray, a former minister of the state from the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena slammed the current government led by chief minister Eknath Shinde for allegedly letting the Tata-Airbus C-295 transport aircraft manufacturing project fly to Gujarat, the home state of prime minister Narendra Modi.

It was only recently that Aaditya heavily criticised the Shinde government backed by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for "losing out" to Gujarat where the Vedanta-Foxconn venture worth Rs 1.54 lakh crore (£16.1 billion) went. The previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (Maharashtra Development Front) government led by Uddhav had reportedly brought negotiations for the project to the "final stage".

Aaditya, son of Uddhav, said the Tata-Airbus project was supposed to come up in Maharashtra and accused the Shinde-led government of failing to protect the state's interests. The Thackeray-led government fell in June after the faction led by Shinde revolted and the Shiv Sena-led government lost its majority.

The BJP countered Aaditya saying the previous government did little to follow up on the proposed project.

On Thursday (25), the Indian defence ministry said a consortium of Airbus and the Tata group will manufacture C-295 transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force in Vadodara in Gujarat.

It will be the first time that a military plane will be produced in India by a private company.

Modi will lay the foundation stone for the aircraft-manufacturing facility on Sunday (30).