Congress ducks question on Adani investment proposal in party-ruled Telangana

Congress stalwart P Chidambaram appeared to be visibly uncomfortable with a media query on the Adani Group’s proposed investment in Congress-ruled Telangana.

At a press conference on the party’s Lok Sabha polls manifesto on Wednesday, Chidambaram deflected the question on his leader Rahul Gandhi’s bête noire to party colleague Supriya Shrinate, who refused to comment.

Asked about the investment proposal, P Chidambaram swiftly moved the mic towards Shrinate. The video of the incident has gone viral.

Supriya Shrinate requested the media to ask queries linked to the manifesto.

“I think this is the press conference for the manifesto. We should concentrate on this topic only. Please don’t mind. But manifesto launch is a big thing,” she said.

Senior Congress MP Rahul Gandhi often accuses Prime Minister Narendra Modi of providing undue benefits to industrialist Gautam Adani. He calls Adani Modi’s “friend”. Several other Opposition leaders also accuse the government of promoting crony capitalism.

The Adani Group on Thursday signed four Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the Revanth Reddy-led Telangana government for an investment of over ₹12,400 crore.

Reddy signed the deal with Adani himself. The Adani Group will invest ₹5000 crore for a data center, ₹5000 crore for two pup storage projects and ₹1400 crore for a cement plant.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Khushboo Sundar slammed the DMK as well over the same matter.

“Here, even a shameless DMK is not different. After singing a tune of “Adani is Modi, Modi is Adani” , they have signed up a ₹42700 crores pact with Adani group. Yet they won’t accept that #Adanis are the best in business and our PM Narendra Modi ji will work only with the best to ensure the growth of this country. No mediocrity is acceptable, unlike the CONgress times when all that mattered was how much of commission cut they were getting,” she wrote on X.