BJP, Sena clash over Jaitapur nuclear power project
While Sena with deep roots in the region is dead set against the 9,900 MW Jaitapur nuclear project, the BJP wants the work to proceed
Mumbai: A day after some workers at a site office to build India’s largest nuclear power station in coastal Maharashtra were attacked, the state’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena crossed swords over the project.
While Sena with deep roots in the region is dead set against the 9,900 MW Jaitapur nuclear project, the BJP wants the work to proceed.
Maharashtra’s BJP chief minister Devendra Fadnavis told reporters in Solapur, “Irrespective of opposition from anyone, Jaitapur power project will go ahead as per schedule. It is a national project and one can’t go back on the project."
Though no one has been formally charged for Sunday’s attack, Shiv Sena’s role is suspected since the party had vandalised the same site on an earlier occasion as well. Local Sena legislator Rajan Salvi warned on Sunday, “Sainiks (Sena workers) won’t allow a single truck of brick and mortar to reach the project site."
On Monday, Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha MP Anil Desai told reporters in Mumbai, “Sena continues to oppose the project. Just because we are in power both at Centre and in state, it doesn’t mean we will dilute our pro-people stand."
The simmering animosity between the two partners, who broke a 25-year-old partnership only to join hands later in an uneasy alliance, flared up on Sunday after a remark by Fadnavis.
While addressing a party meeting in Kolhapur, Fadnavis said that breaking the alliance with Sena just before the state’s assembly elections last year proved to be blessing in disguise for the BJP “as we came to know our real strength."
While BJP won 123 seats, Sena won 63. However, both parties later came together as the BJP needed 25 more legislators for a majority in the house of 288 members.
During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France in April, French government owned Areva SA, the technology partner for the Jaitapur project and state-owned Nuclear Power Corp. of India (NPCIL), operator of the Jaitapur project, signed a pre-engineering agreement or memorandum of understanding on engineering standards, which will be followed by both parties during construction and operation of the plant.
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