Rajasthan is increasingly experiencing a political tussle just before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate the Pachpadra refinery on April 21. The multi-crore project has already turned into a cut-throat credit battle between the BJP and the Congress, even before its formal launch.
BJP is touting the refinery as a landmark in the state, which has been christened by the people as the destiny line of Rajasthan. State president, BJP, Madan Rathore has taken a strong stand in defence of his party, stating that the project was initially planned back in the time of the previous Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje, in 2007-08. He claimed that the next Congress government under the leadership of Ashok Gehlot entered into faulty deals, and that in 2013, the foundation stone was hastily laid by Sonia Gandhi.
In response, the Leader of Opposition Tikaram Julie dismissed Rathore’s claims as being out of context. He claimed that the Congress government had undertaken the project in 2013, and that the project cost was estimated at ₹37,230 crore. Nonetheless, he blamed the BJP for deliberately wasting time on the project as a political scorecard, and this has since increased the project’s expenses to almost ₹80,000 crore, straining the state’s coffers.
Julie also asserted that the project would have been fully completed at least four years before it was stalled. Another case he took on was the BJP’s stalling of the Jaipur Metro, pointing out that the Congress initially planned the project, but the BJP kept stalling it.
It was only during the period when the Congress returned to power in 2018 that the refinery work could be carried out at a swift pace, according to Julie, which made it possible for the upcoming inauguration. Amid political parties accusing each other, the Pachpadra refinery has not only remained an industrial milestone but also a major political flashpoint in the state.