Oppn takes dig at CM Fadnavis over signing MoUs with Maha companies at Davos

Mumbai, Jan 23 A day after the Maharashtra government announced the signing of 54 MoUs with investment proposals worth Rs 15.7 lakh crore at the sidelines of the World Economic Forum summit, the Shiv Sena and Congress took a swipe at the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, saying that as most of the companies were from Mumbai and Maharashtra the MoUs could have been signed here instead of spending crores of rupees on Davos trip.

Shiv Sena leader and former minister Aaditya Thackeray on Thursday said that the Davos trip of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis seems to be totally misaligned by his office as of the 29 companies, only one was from outside India with whom MoUs were inked.

In his post on X, Aaditya said: “Being always supportive of any real investment/proposed investment coming into our nation and our state, this Davos trip of CM Fadnavis ji seems to be totally misaligned by his office, Out of the MoUs for proposed investment signed with 29 companies, only one is from outside of India. The rest are all Indian or have headquarters/bases in India. Of the 29 companies, 20 are based in Maharashtra, 15 of which are in Mumbai where the @CMOMaharashtra is located.”

He further said: “The question really is, what’s the point of asking of all these 28 companies to sign MoUs in Davos, when the time in Davos could have been better utilised by the Chief Minister for international relations with other visiting dignitaries, companies and entrepreneurs. Davos is the most amazing place for building global relations for a State, with so many amazingly talented individuals and organisations coming together.”

“What’s the point of being busy within ourselves when the CM could have an outreach to the world for Maharashtra? Interact with others in Congress and attend the fantastic sessions to keep pace with the world. Why could Magnetic Maharashtra not been held, just like it has not been held since mid-2022, and have all these companies sign MoUs here?” he asked.

“I humbly urge the CM, to do all these important MoUs, from within our country in Maharashtra itself, inviting the world over, instead of doing it there and not meeting the world. It’ll also be good if the current government can work with the WEF in bringing a summer Davos/mid-year Davos to Maharashtra- something we had started pitching in May 2022,” said Aaditya.

He further added: “Also, on a side note, it’s hilarious to see the entire dept and officers of the Urban Development minister being there but the minister himself being dropped from the delegation in favour of another minister from his party.”

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Sachin Sawant also targeted the Chief Minister over the signing of MoUs and questioned why to go to Davos.

In his post on X, Sawant said: “They spent crores of rupees of public money and went to Davos and made investment agreements with Indian companies. Now the headquarters of all these companies are in Mumbai. These agreements were made sitting in the ministry! Reliance's Anant Ambani could have thanked the government from Mantralaya. But the pretence and lies are the working methods of this grand alliance government. This is part of MahaYuti’s functioning.”