Doubts crept in when Vedanta chairman said only Centres nod was awaited for semi-conductor plant in Maha: ex-minister Desai

Former Maharashtra Industries Minister Subhash Desai on Wednesday said that Foxconn-Vedantas proposed semiconductor project in the state had been all but finalized when MVA government was in power. But the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition government began to have doubts about whether it would materialize when Vedanta boss Anil Agarwal told them that only the Centres assent was awaited, he claimed. Opposition parties in Maharashtra have been slamming the Eknath Shinde-led state government after it was announced on Tuesday that the mega project would be set up in Gujarat, and not in Maharashtra as proposed earlier.

Speaking to reporters here, Desai said when the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government was in talks with Foxconn, Karnataka and Telangana were the other two competitor states.

“Gujarat was nowhere in the picture. Our government held talks with the company several times and even the MIDC industrial area in Talegaon was finalised. We also reached agreement over land, water, electricity and incentives,” the Sena leader said.

“After almost finalizing Maharashtra (for the project), Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal told us at the World Economic Forum in Davos that only the central governments nod was now needed for going ahead,” Desai said.

“At this point we began to have doubts,” he added.

As recently as on July 26 the company officials had met new Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis, and an official statement had said that the central government was supporting Maharashtra for the project, Desai further said.

The BJP, meanwhile, shared links to Desais older statement when he, as industries minister in the MVA government, had sounded pessimistic about Foxconn investing in Maharashtra.

Published on January 7, 2020, the report quoted Desai as saying, Foxconns commitment of investing in the state will not work.” The Taiwanese electronic giant was facing market related issues and also competition from smartphone assembling firms in India, he had purportedly said.

Why did the company say no? Did anyone demand kickbacks? the BJPs Maharashtra unit tweeted on Wednesday with a screenshot of the report.

Foxconn had signed a high-profile memorandum of understanding with the Maharashtra government in August 2015, offering an investment of USD 5 billion in the state.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)