The opening of the Tata-Airbus Final Assembly Line in Vadodara on Monday to co-produce the C-295 military aircraft in India prompted the Congress to reopen the debate over Maharashtra losing the project to Gujarat on the BJP-Sena government’s watch.

The BJP termed the allegation “unadulterated trash”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez launched the project in Vadodara right in the middle of Maharashtra’s election season.

Congress communications-in-charge Jairam Ramesh was ready with his reminder about Mumbai’s failed efforts to get the co-production facility set up in Nagpur.

“This exact same project was supposed to be set up in Nagpur, but was shifted to Gujarat in 2022 on the eve of the Assembly elections there,” Ramesh posted on X.

“One can only imagine the machinations that went on behind the scenes to ensure that Maharashtra lost out on this key investment.”

He said this was not an exception. “Under the non-biological PM’s leadership and instruction, the Union Government and the Mahayuti Government (in Maharashtra) have conspired to ensure the wholesale surrender of Maharashtra’s interests in landing new projects or seeking Central support,” Ramesh added, listing what the Congress views as similar instances.

The BJP’s IT cell head, Amit Malviya, trashed Ramesh’s allegations. Yet, Maharashtra industries minister Uday Samant had said on September 15, 2022, that Maharashtra would secure the project and it would be set up in Nagpur.

When the project went to Gujarat three weeks later, Samant again confirmed Maharashtra’s efforts to bag it, saying: “Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was making all-out efforts to secure the project for Nagpur but he was not successful.”

Union minister Nitin Gadkari too had written to Tata Sons chairperson N. Chandrasekaran in October 2022, urging the company to consider Nagpur as the site for the ₹22,000-crore project.

Curiously, the Shiv Sena (Thackeray) remained silent after having castigated the Mahayuti — led by its breakaway group — in 2022 for allowing another big-ticket project to slip away from Maharashtra soon after the state had lost the Foxconn-Vedanta joint venture to Gujarat.

Briefing reporters in Vadodara after the bilateral meeting between India and Spain, the secretary (west) in the external affairs ministry, Tanmaya Lal, said that according to the arrangement between Tata Advanced Systems Limited and Airbus Spain, 56 aircraft are to be procured, 16 of them in flyaway condition.

The remaining 40 are to be “made in India” at the Vadodara Final Assembly Line.

The first “made in India” aircraft, Lal said, is expected to be delivered within two years. He put the number of jobs to be generated at 13,000.

“The entire ecosystem for making and producing these components is being developed here in India. As many as 18,000 components (to) be used in this aircraft will be manufactured in various locations including Hyderabad, Nagpur, Bengaluru,” he said.

“…It is really generating capacities in addition to employment which is expected to be in the range of 3,000 direct jobs here and around 10,000 jobs in terms of various SMEs and other entities which will be making all these components.”

The decision to acquire the C-295 transport aircraft was taken in 2021.