Ahead of civic polls in Maharashtra Raj Thackeray targets Adani Group's expansion

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray sought to target the Adani Group on Tuesday ahead of high-stakes civic body polls in Maharashtra, as he highlighted the group's expansion in Maharashtra and other parts of the country.

“Between 2014 and 2025, span of just eleven year the Adani Group, with the government’s blessings, has expanded across the country at an unprecedented pace, steadily building dominance across multiple sectors,” the MNS chief said in a post on social media platform X.

He also shared a video claiming to show the “rapid rise” of the Adani Group, which he referred to as a “monopoly".

This comes after cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray accused the BJP of “looting” Mumbai and claimed the party had been attempting to connect the city to Gujarat, PTI news agency reported. They alleged that Mumbai and Maharashtra's assets were being handed over to the Gautam Adani-led conglomerate.

The MNS chief also spoke on the proposed Vadhavan port, saying it was adjacent to Gujarat, and claiming that controlling Palghar, Thane, and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region was part of a larger plan to control Mumbai. “They cannot sell land to Adani if the BMC is with us,” Raj said. “This is the last election for the Marathi manoos. If he makes a mistake now, the battle for Mumbai will be lost forever,” he warned, urging people to vote for Thackeray cousins in the upcoming civic body polls.

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has countered the Thackeray cousins, while saying that non-BJP-ruled states had also taken investments from the Adani group companies, according to PTI.

The BJP's Mumbai unit had on Monday posted pictures of Raj Thackeray with Adani.

Mumbai BJP chief Ameet Satam shared an old picture of Adani's visit to Thackeray's residence, while calling the MNS chief “pretentious”, and terming it the “height of double standards.”