Is Nanar refinery going to be the new flash point?

Raj Thackeray had written to the CM, Sharad Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis last week asking them to consider working on the refinery

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray has said that Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar has supported his demand for reviving the ‘stalled' refinery at coastal Nanar village in Ratnagiri district, and wants Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who has scrapped the Centre-Saudi-owned Aramco and UAE's National Oil Company's proposal on environmental grounds, to consider it for revival. He says it is for the benefit of the local people who need jobs and development.

Raj had written to the CM, Pawar and Fadnavis last week asking them to consider working on the refinery because the state could not afford to lose the project worth Rs 3 lakh crore investment to another state. On Monday, the MNS chief told a delegation of pro-refinery residents that Pawar has, over a phone call, told him that his stand was appropriate, and assured him to meet the CM to discuss the project's future. Pawar hadn't issued an official statement on Raj's revelation by Monday afternoon.

Fadnavis and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been for the project because it was their government's move. On the other hand, the Sena had expressed environmental concerns since the very beginning and ensured that the project was stalled by the then BJP government before the 2019 general elections. Later, the Sena-led government planned to take it to Raigad district, but changed the decision by proposing to use the land for an integrated pharmaceutical city. While statements were made from all quarters, Raj's statement has raised a question over the Sena chief's willingness to consider Pawar's advice on reviving the project.

Leaders slam Raj
Several Sena leaders slammed Raj for retracting from his strong opposition to the Nanar refinery. The video clips of Raj declaring that he would never allow the project to happen at Nanar have been doing the rounds on social media. The Sena received much-needed support from the MVA's third partner, the Congress, which ridiculed Raj for changing stance and agenda repeatedly.

"The MNS changes its thoughts, its party flag and its direction time and again. Their engine (the MNS's election symbol) changes the stoppages every now and then," said the Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant, who also tweeted the MNS chief's video in which he had made a strong statement against the refinery.

‘Not a matter of politics'
Fadnavis welcomed Raj's letter but refused to link it to a possibility of the BJP and the MNS coming together for alliance politics. "Don't consider this as a matter of elections or politics. The point here is the biggest foreign investment the state will get through the green refinery. We have been telling the government that the locals who have given 1,000 acres of land for the project and local Sena leaders want the project for the development of the Konkan region. Environmental concerns about the project are baseless," he said at the Vidhan Bhavan.