Gujarat met our expectations: Vedanta's Anil Agarwal on row over alleged shift of project from Maharashtra

A day after Gujarat bagged a mega Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor project, Vedanta Group Chairman Anil Agarwal has finally broken his silence over the row in Maharashtra.

Taking to Twitter Agarwal said that they decided Gujarat few months ago as it met their expectations.

Full statement of Anil Agarwal

Vedanta-Foxconn has been professionally assessing site for a multi-billion dollar investment. This is a scientific and financial process which takes several years. We started this about 2 years ago.

Our team of internal & external professional agencies shortlisted few states viz., Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, TN etc to help achieve our purpose. For last 2 years we have been engaging with each of these govts as well as central govt & have received fantastic support.

We decided Gujarat few months ago as they met our expectations. But in July meeting with Maharashtra leadership, they made a huge effort to outbid other states with competitive offer. We have to start in one place & based on professional & independent advice we chose Gujarat.

This multibillion dollar long-term investment will change the course of Indian electronics. We will create a pan-India ecosystem & are fully committed to investing in Maharashtra as well. Maharashtra will be our key to forward integration in our Gujarat JV.

Political blame-game over project in Maharashtra

Rattled by the political fallout of the Vedanta Group-Foxconn Rs 2.06 lakh-crore mega project choosing Gujarat, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde blamed former CM Uddhav Thackeray's government for the loss. At the same time the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi allies slammed Shinde for "treachery, and bulldozing the state economy", here on Wednesday.

Clearly taken aback by the political-economic bombshell with long-term ramifications, Shinde spoke with Prime Minister Narendra Modi late on Tuesday where the latter reportedly assured him of "giving even bigger projects to Maharashtra" in the future.

All parties in state have demanded a thorough probe into the sequence of events leading to Vedanta-Foxconn opting for Gujarat when more than 90 percent of its deal was finalised with Maharashtra, including allotment of 1,100 acres of land near Pune.