Why Adani’s Dharavi project is a talking point in Maharashtra polls – and residents are anxious
Locals fear that their concerns will not be heard with the future of the Adani Realty-led project entangled in the political fortunes of the state.
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Last week, as election day nears in Maharashtra, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi linked the toppling of the state’s Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance government in July 2022 to the contract for a lucrative housing project in Mumbai’s Dharavi being awarded to billionaire businessman Gautam Adani.
“Why was Adani sitting in a political meeting?” Gandhi asked while campaigning in Nanded in Marathwada.
He was referring to the claim by politician Ajit Pawar, since retracted, that the businessman had been present at meetings in November 2019 at which the possibility of the Nationalist Congress Party joining the Bharatiya Janata Party was discussed. “He only attended the meeting because he wanted Dharavi,” said Gandhi.
In Dharavi, as a balmy November evening set in on the busy 90 Feet Road, Gandhi’s allegations found echo in a campaign slogan as a tempo blared a recorded entreaty to voters: “Na apne vote ko bechna hai, na Dharavi ko bikne dena hai” – don’t sell your vote and don’t let Dharavi be sold off either.
The exhortation was made on behalf of Jyoti Gaikwad, the Congress candidate from Dharavi for Wednesday’s assembly election.
A stone’s throw away, a poster featuring Gaikwad’s rival – Rajesh Khandare from Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction – asserted that voters...
