Gondia-Bhandara: Praful Patel's rival Nana Patole attacks Adani's Tiroda plant as a poll plank

MUMBAI: BJP candidate Nana Patole, who is contesting against heavy industries minister Praful Patel from the Gondia-Bhandara constituency, has made the alleged ills of a 3,300 megawatt thermal power plant set up by the Adani Group in Tiroda, part of the Gondia constituency, the centerpiece of his campaign.

“The first thing I will do as an MP is to shut down the plant, they are not even employing local workers. They have taken land from the farmers as well as the water, which has led to a drought situation. There is no water for people from Talukas as the company has been drawing water from the Waiganga river. Worse, there is water and air pollution as the thermal power plant dumps its effluents in the river polluting it,” claimed Patole.

BJP’s Prime Ministerial Candidate, Narendra Modi, was supposed to campaign for Patole last month on March 28. But the rally was cancelled because, according to Patole, victory was certain. “ It was a tentative plan but it was cancelled as we told him that we would win this easily and hence there was no need to come,” said Patole.

Modi has addressed rallies in Chandrapur, Wardha, Akola and Amravati all constituencies in Vidarbha but seems to have skipped only Gondia-Bhandara AAP Candidate Prashant Mishra claimed that he was confident that Modi would not come to campaign.

“I had declared that if Modi comes to the constituency and talks against the Adanis, then I would not just withdraw my name from the contest but also support the BJP candidate. The fact that he did not come shows his links with the group,” said Mishra.

Praful Patel for his part denies that any favours were extended to the Adani group. “Whenever you talk of development you will face such allegations. Land was acquired from the farmers by giving them compensation. The water that is being taken from the river has been stipulated and has not been decided by me,” said Patel.