RANCHI: A meeting over mining rights between Gautam Adani, chairman of Adani group with Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren at the latter’s residence in Ranchi late on Friday, left the BJP questioning the grand old party’s stand on the sudden bonhomie with the industrialist, whom it had earlier targeted during polls.
“The two-hour closed-door meeting centred around commercial mining in Adani’s two coal blocks in Gondulpura (Hazaribag) and Godda, which is pending due to land acquisition and other mandatory statutory clearances, besides deliberations on future investment opportunities,” a source said.
While the two met to discuss land acquisition and pending clearances for the Adani’s two commercial coal mining blocks in the state, the opposition BJP questioned whether “jibes and allegations” against Adani by INDIA bloc during twin elections last year was only to score political mileage.
The meet comes a few days after Congress MLA and leader of its legislative party, Pradeep Yadav, demanded a review of the land acquisition done by Adanis for its 1,600 MW Godda thermal power plant, which is supplying power to Bangladesh.
After he made claims that it was done in ‘violation’ of Santhal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Act, the coalition govt led by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) announced formation of a special committee led by chief secretary Alka Tiwari to probe into it.
Notably, Adani is among the first companies to bag coal blocks in the state for commercial coal mining, but the projects are stuck due to pending statutory clearances. In Gondulpura, the company is also facing resistance from the locals in land acquisition.
Pratul Shahdeo, BJP spokesperson said, “Meetings are good, but such meetings should also be taken as lessons. The way CM accorded a red carpet welcome to Gautam Adaniji, it seems that his and his party’s jibes against the industrialist was only political to mislead people so far.”
Hitting out at the Congress, he added, “The party whose leader Rahul Gandhi’s only job day in and out is to attack Adani and Ambani must explain its stand now at the meeting.”
Both JMM and Congress defended the meeting. “Our criticism wasn’t person specific, but against the BJP led govt in the Centre on its ways to appease specific bunch of capitalists at the sake of countrymen, poor farmers, tribals etc. Any right investments for the state is always welcome to create jobs, and development,” said JMM spokesperson Manoj Pandey.
Speaking to TOI, Yadav, who had been vocal against Godda power plant for many years said the Congress was never against good and positive investment, but the fight has always been against concentration of everyone to specific groups, which the BJP led govt’s approach has been since coming to power in 2014.
The sudden meeting however raised eyebrows in the state Congress camp as many said they were in the dark. Congress has four ministers in the Hemant led coalition govt while RJD has one.
“None of our ministers were even aware about the visit. Even though it’s chief minister’s prerogative, having representation of ministers from finance and Industry, which is with Congress and RJD respectively would have given the meeting more depth for proper deliberations,” said a senior Congress office bearer.
While Adani group didn’t come up with any official communique, an official said that the meeting was long due and pre-planned. “It was to take place earlier soon after the Hemant govt returned to office after 2019 polls but got delayed due to various reasons. About a week back, the meeting got finalised,” said a source, adding that the chairman’s office had directly coordinated everything with CMO.
“As an industrial group, such meetings are natural as we have our operations in Jharkhand too. While land acquisition for Godda power plant was done during erstwhile BJP govt, but one should recognise that the plant actually came into formal operation during Hemant govt’s earlier tenure between 2019-2024,” he added.
