Opinion: Has It Turned Into Fadnavis vs Shinde Already? Telling Signs
The egg on the faces of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his Deputy, Devendra Fadnavis, is worth ₹ 1.79 lakh crore. That is the cumulative value of the four deals that Maharashtra has lost to Gujarat, two of them since the Shinde-Fadnavis combo took charge of the state. The losses: the Vedanta Foxconn chip-making project, a bulk drug-manufacturing project, a medical park and, as of this week, a Tata-Airbus plan that will manufacture military transport planes. The timing is portentous. Gujarat is due to vote for its next government and the announcement of securing some of the biggest investments in the country will pump up the BJP's campaign to demolish Arvind Kejriwal in the Prime Minister's home state. Maharashtra, meanwhile, has to lick its wounds. The three main opposition parties there - whose joint government was dismantled by Shinde and Fadnavis - say the couple must explain what allows them to sit by and watch as Mumbai comes within spitting distance of losi...