Roadshow to Vadodara aircraft complex rubs salt in Maharashtra’s wounds: Aaditya Thackeray

On 29 October, Tuesday, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray said the roadshow by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pedro Sanchez, president of Spain, travelling from the Vadodara airport to the Tata Aircraft Complex was "like rubbing salt into Maharashtra's wounds".

Addressing a news conference, Thackeray said the Tata–Airbus project was to come up in MIHAN in Nagpur, but was "taken" to adjoining Gujarat by the BJP and the state's Eknath Shinde government.

Modi and Sanchez on Monday, 28 October, inaugurated the Tata Aircraft Complex in Vadodara, a facility which marks India's first private venture dedicated to the production of military aircraft, specifically the Airbus C295.

The inauguration was preceded by a 2.5 km roadshow by the two leaders from the airport to the sprawling complex in the Gujarat city.

The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has alleged the project was originally planned at Nagpur in eastern Maharashtra, but was allowed to move to Gujarat after change of guard in the state in 2022 when the Shinde-led government assumed office.

The MVA has also alleged that several big ticket projects which were to come up in Maharashtra chose other states, especially the BJP-ruled Gujarat, after the regime change. The state's Mahayuti government has rejected the charges.

"The BJP has decided that it will not bring a single project to Maharashtra whether it votes for them or not," Thackeray claimed.

The saffron party should have realised that such a grand roadshow just before the assembly polls would hurt Maharashtra, especially its youth, the former state minister maintained.

"But the BJP is not bothered about what the youth of the state think. The roadshow was like rubbing salt on the wounds of Maharashtra," Thackeray said.

Thackeray also noted the Tata–Airbus project was not a 'Make in India' venture, but an 'assemble in India' facility.

He further alleged the Shinde-led Mahayuti dispensation was hurting Mumbai's commercial interests by reducing the fleet size of civic transport undertaking BEST from 3,500 to 2,500 buses.

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking (BEST) had a daily ridership between 33 lakh and 35 lakh, pointed out the opposition leader.

If the Shinde government comes back to office after the 20 November assembly polls, it will bring down the BEST fleet size to just 250 by next year, he taunted.

The Sena (UBT) leader said when his father Uddhav Thackeray was the chief minister (November 2019 to June 2022), it was decided that till 2027, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) would help BEST with respect to paying salaries, bonuses and pensions to its employees.

The Uddhav Thackeray government had planned to take the bus fleet size to 10,000 by 2027, but then it collapsed mid-way (in June 2002), the former Maharashtra minister said.