Sena chief will skip summit to be inaugurated by Modi
Maharashtra’s first global investors’ summit will start today
MUMBAI: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will not share the dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration of Maharashtra’s first global investors’ summit, ‘Magnetic Maharashtra’ on Sunday in Mumbai. The state government had invited Thackeray, but a senior Sena leader close to Thackeray said that he will skip the event.
Modi will inaugurate the three-day summit at the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority grounds in Bandra-Kurla Complex on Sunday evening, in which the state government aims to attract investment worth ~10 lakh crore.
The state industries department is expecting to ink around 4,500 MoUs in sectors such as automobile, housing, textile and information technology (IT). State industries minister Subhash Desai expressed confidence to convert the MoUs into actual investments.
“We have an excellent track record when it comes to converting MoUs to actual investments, unlike our neighbouring state. Our focus is to convert MoUs; in fact we have taken special care while discussing with companies that these MoUs would be translated, and it is not just for announcement or creating a buzz,” Desai said. He added that the state converted 51% of MoUs that were inked in the Make in India week in 2016.
The state government is going to showcase the infrastructure projects including PM Modi’s pet project “the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s flagship initiative - the NagpurMumbai super communication Expressway.
Desai added that Italian automobile giant Lamborghini has decided to invest in Maharashtra for its Electric Vehicle manufac- turing plan. “We have had a fruitful discussion with Lamborghini. The MoU will be signed during the summit,” he said.
Desai, who is a senior Sena leader, said the government has already extended an invitation to Thackeray. “Uddhav ji will not attend PM’s function on Sunday,” a Sena leader said, adding that “given the current relations between the two parties, it was clear to everybody that we would stay away from a function where (prime minister Narendra) Modi ji will be present.”
The ties between the two allies Shiv Sena and BJP have been strained since the last couple of years. Last month, Sena passed a resolution to go solo in the 2019 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The Sena has been attacking Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on various issues, much to the chagrin of the senior leadership of the BJP.
On Saturday the Sena, through its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, taunted the BJP that absconding celebrity jeweller Nirav Modi should be made the “governor of the Reserve Bank of India to finish off the country.”