Mumbai, Sep 6 (IANS): The Maharashtra Congress on Friday said that the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government secured the highest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the past five years, compared with the current Mahayuti regime so far.

“We have been consistently saying that if the Central government had not pulled the rug from under Maharashtra's feet, the state would have been and shall always remain at the top slot in getting FDI,” said state Congress General Secretary Sachin Sawant.

Sawant was referring to certain data on FDI attracted by Maharashtra, posted by BJP leader and the state’s Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis proclaiming that Maharashtra topped the national list with a staggering inflow of 52.46 per cent of India’s total FDI in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

Fadnavis further said that the state consecutively ranked number one in the past two years in terms of FDI, and has now secured 52.46 per cent of India’s total FDI in the first quarter of FY 2024-2025 – which was countered by the Congress.

“If Fadnavis’ team had given a little more thought while tweeting, this embarrassment could have been avoided for them. The inference of this post is that under his leadership as CM for five years, the state lagged behind compared with the two-and-half years of CM Eknath Shinde,” Sawant pointed out.

As per the data shared, Sawant contended that the FDI that came to the state during Fadnavis’ tenure as CM (2014-2019) was lesser than during the two-and-half-years of Shinde’s regime (since July 2022).

However, the Shinde government lagged far behind compared with the best FDI figures achieved during MVA CM Uddhav Thackeray’s government so far, claimed Sawant.

“During five years with Fadnavis as CM, Maharashtra got Rs 362,161 crore FDI, and in Shinde’s term so far, Rs 314,318 crore FDI has been received. However, during Thackeray’s tenure as CM (October 2019-June 2022), the state got a handsome FDI of Rs 329,291 crore, before the MVA was toppled,” Sawant asserted.

He added that the Congress had said in the past also how the state had fallen back in getting FDI during Fadnavis’ government, but picked up during the Thackeray regime, while even the current ‘double-engine’ government of Shinde has failed to match the MVA’s success.

For this, Sawant pointed fingers at the BJP government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying how in 2020-2021, the Centre had diverted 78 per cent of the total FDI in computer hardware and software industries to Gujarat, otherwise, Maharashtra could have bagged more FDI of over Rs 100,000 crore.

Sawant said that if the Centre doesn’t cast its ‘evil eye’ over the state then Maharashtra can progress even better and faster.

Commenting on the latest data released by the Centre, Fadnavis said that this time, Maharashtra has got more FDI compared with the total figures of eight other states: Karnataka, Delhi, Telangana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

“In a nutshell, out of the total FDI of Rs 134,959 crore that came into India in the first quarter, April-June 2024, Rs 70,795 crore or 52.46 per cent went to Maharashtra alone!” gushed Fadnavis, adding that the second quarter figures (for FY 2024-2025) are yet to be announced.