Rahul Gandhi, BJP spar over Adani and Dharavi in Maharashtra poll battle

The Congress and the BJP presented closing arguments referencing the alleged BJPAdani nexus on Monday when campaigning for the state Assembly election ended The Congress said the Narendra Modi government was handinglove with the Adani Group while the BJP claimed the Congressled UPA and its state governments were responsible for Adanirsquos riseOn Monday Congressrsquos star campaigner and Opposition leader in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi held a press conference in Mumbai to reiterate the charges in the Dharavi redevelopment project He endorsed Shiv Sena UBT President Uddhav Thackerayrsquos commitment to scrap the Dharavi redevelopment project being implemented in collaboration with the Maharashtra government by a company belonging to the Adani GroupVinod Tawde national general secretary BJP PicXTawdeVinodTaking a dig at the BJPrsquos lsquoEk hain toh safe hainrsquo slogan Gandhi displayed posters that carried Gautam Adani and PM Narendra Modirsquos photo and Dharavirsquos map The posters were locked in a safe steel locker that was brought to the venue ldquoI want to make you understand BJPrsquos nara slogan This Modi with Adani is actually lsquoEk hain toh safe hainrsquo together we are safe All is being done for one man Im absolutely convinced this is a theft of land Adani is fully supported by Modiand he gets what he wantsrdquo he alleged adding that the Dharavi project and transferring land worth R1 lakh crore to Adani was an attempt to change Mumbairsquosnature characterHe denied that the BJPrsquos slogan would change the course of action ldquoThis is the right slogan But we should know who is with whom and who would be affected Whatever is happening is against the people of Dharavi and Maharashtra This truly is an election issuerdquo Gandhi added saying that his party supported Thackerayrsquos decision to scrap the Dharavi tenders because it wasnrsquot just about Dharavi but Mumbai where the development on the land being given to Adani would cause flooding and environmental lossesRahul Gandhi addresses the media at a press conference at BKC on Monday PicShadab KhanldquoIt is time to decide who among one man and the people gets the statersquos richesrdquo he said alleging further that eight big projects that were supposed to create five lakh jobs were taken to other states He stated that the caste census was the central pillar of the Congressrsquos poll agenda because it wanted to know who should get what and how muchTawde countersBJPrsquos National General Secretary Vinod Tawde countered Gandhis allegations saying that the AdaniCongress relationship was much older He said it was during the UPA government and Congressled state governments before and after 2014 that the Adani Group was granted big projects in India and abroadVinod Tawde senior BJP leaderldquoThere were eight leaders on Gandhirsquos dais on Wednesday Of them six were from other states Gandhi carried a safe to the press conference and took out some photos We may also show such photos of Adani with Robert Vadra Gandhis brotherinlaw with former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot with Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor with the Telangana CM and with those who were the Haryana CM before 2014rdquo he addedldquoAdani Group expanded during the Congress regime We have a list of Adani projects before and after 2014 in Rajasthan Karnataka Punjab etc He got a project in Punjabrsquos Bathinda and Mundra port and SEZ He was awarded the Dighi Port in the MVA regime ThenChhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel gave Adani a mine developer and operatorrsquos contract Gehlot gave him 16000 hectares of land for a 10000MW solar project in Rajasthan and also got him to build the Jaipur airport He said even the West Bengal government had given Adani big projectsTawde rephrased his partys slogan saying ldquoEk sai toh safe Rahul Gandhi fake hainrdquo He asked the Congress to talk about its award of a Rs 12400 crore agreement with Adani in Telangana and a Rs 46000crore solar project in RajasthanTawde alleged that Gandhi wanted the Dharavi residents to stay in slums forever saying ldquoIs he upset because the shaikh of Abu Dhabi didnrsquot get the Dharavi contract Does he want to say lsquoEk hain toh safe hain Dharavi ke liye Shaikh hainrsquordquoThe BJP leader dismissed the land transfer allegations ldquoThe land will stay with the government In fact the tender was finalised when Thackeray was the CM The tender conditions were changed after railway land was given for the projectrdquo Tawde said Modirsquos lsquoEk hainrsquo slogan was to counter the Congressrsquos strategy of dividing OBCs through the caste census