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Maharashtra Elections: Uddhav Sena-Congress Plan To Milk Adani Factor

Palak Shah Jul 21, 2024

A white paper is being prepared by Maharashtra's two opposition parties to showcase to the public the number of projects that went to the Adani Group under the BJP government both in the state and outside

Uddhav Thackrey led Shiv Sena and Congress party are planning to bring out a white paper on all the major contracts and projects awarded by the incumbent Maharashtra government and central government in the past 10 years to the Adani Group since BJP came to power, sources told Businessworld. A meeting on this particular agenda was held between Thackrey and Congress party leaders in Mumbai last week, the sources said. It is after this meeting that Thackrey last Saturday targeted the Dharavi Slum Redevelopment Project and declared, "Won't let Mumbai turn into Adani City."

For a long time, Congress party scion Rahul Gandhi has run a high pitched campaign against the Adani group and linked all the contracts won by it to nepotism and closeness to PM Modi. In Maharashtra elections too, the same theme would remain dominant, said the sources. According to the sources, Uddhav Thackrey and Congress party's campaign for the Maharashtra elections is being designed in a manner to keep the spotlight on billionaire businessman Gautam Adani, who in the past 10 years has forayed into strategic infrastructure projects like ports and airports, real-estate and power generation and supply. Before the US short seller Hindenburg report came out in January 2023 targeting the Adani group, Gautam Adani had hit the charts as the world's richest Indian since the market capitalization of his listed companies soared to dizzy heights.

For a long time, successive governments in Maharashtra wanted to redevelop Dharavi but were unsuccessful. When the BJP government came to power, they awarded the Dharavi contract to Adani Group for redevelopment, which is said to be worth more than $20 billion (approximately Rs 150 lakh crores). Thackrey has promised to scrap theDharavi redevelopment project and float fresh tenders, once his party was elected to power in the upcoming state elections. Thackeray has alleged that the Maharashtra government was giving ‘extraordinary favours’ to the Adani Group. Congress leader Nana Patole has alleged that the state government also wanted to give away the multi crore dairy land at worli to Adani Group.

For several decades now, successive government's in Maharashtra have milked the real-estate lobby and made fortunes out real-estate deals including slum redevelopment and mill land development projects.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is also an alliance partner of Uddhav Shiv Sena and Congress may refrain from taking jibes against the Adani Group, since NCP founder Sharad Pawar is perceived to be close to billionaire Gautam Adani. In fact, there have been rumours in the political circles that businessmen close to the NCP in Maharashtra and Adani Group have been partners in a few projects, the details of which are nowhere available in the public domain or have remained unverified so far.

Palak Shah

BW Reporters The writer is author of the book: The Market Mafia - Chronicle of India’s High-Tech Stock Market Scandal & The Cabal That Went Scot-Free. Palak has been a journalist in Mumbai for nearly two decades now. He has worked for most premier pink papers including The Economic Times, Business Standard and The Financial Express and The Hindu Business Line. He was drawn to crime reporting at the age of 19 but a few years in the field told him that the fabric of crime had changed and the organised gangs, as Mumbai had witnessed during the eighties, no longer existed. It was business and markets that dominated the scenario. His passion to unravel the intricacies of the ‘white money’ economy led Palak to the world of finance and regulations.