With several mega-projects deserting Maharashtra for Gujarat, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Friday called the government of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis ‘agents’ of Gujarat.

Continuing to target the ruling alliance of Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena (BSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) continued to target Shinde-Fadnavis for allegedly working in the interests of Gujarat at the cost of Maharashtra.

“Since past over 8 years, the BJP at the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been scuttling the state’s interests by shifting major industries, investments and institutions to his home state, and now the treacherous Shinde-Fadnavis regime here is acting like ‘agents’ of Gujarat,” Congress’ Maharashtra unit president Nana Patole said here.

Attacking Shinde-Fadnavis, SS (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray said the manner in which so many big deals are slipping out of the state proves that “industrialists have lost faith in the ‘Khokha’ (slang for crores of rupees) regime”.

“The CM is busy with festivals and celebrations… after this government of traitors came to power, the ‘engine’ has failed,” said Thackeray Jr.

NCP national spokesperson Clyde Crasto accused Industry Minister Uday Samant of ‘either lying or suffering from amnesia’ by blaming the erstwhile MVA government for the loss of the Rs 22,000-crore Tata-Airbus to Gujarat.

“He promises that much bigger projects will come here to compensate for the losses of other deals, but its clear his excuses and creating deliberate confusion to hide his failures which are hitting the people of the state now,” Crasto said.

Maharashtra Congress General Secretary Sachin Sawant reiterated that the Shinde-Fadnavis duo is working all-out to make Gujarat prosperous at Maharashtra’s expense, and they have no guts to raise their voice before Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Now, Samant is claiming that the Tata-Airbus MoU was signed one year ago, but it was signed with the Centre and not Gujarat government. Now, even Arcelor-Mittal, which has a plant in Pune (Maharashtra), has announced a Rs 60,000-crore project in Gujarat,” said Sawant.

Hitting out, Patole said the Shinde-Fadnavis regime is playing treason with the people of Maharashtra by enriching Gujarat, especially since Modi is worried that his home state lags behind this state.

“Ever since he became the PM major projects like the IFC, Marine Academy, Diamond Bourse, the Vedanta-Foxconn, the bulk drugs park, Tata-Airbus deal and others have gone to Gujarat. When the MVA ruled, it had stopped many projects from shifting there, and that’s why the BJP installed a puppet government to do their bidding,” said Patole.

Sawant added that the Centre had shown Dholera to the Tata-Airbus for its aircraft projects, but now its happening in Vadodara, which proves that Dholera is unsuited for such business, and the prospects of Maharashtra are being deliberately undermined.

On Thursday, NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase had slammed CM Shinde for being ‘ineffective’ as the state keeps losing one huge project after another.