Amidst wild rumours of flight of investments from Andhra Pradesh, Reliance Industries Limited chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani met YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy at the latter’s Tadepalli camp office on Saturday.
Along with Mukesh, his son Anant Ambani and Rajya Sabha member Parimal Nathwani also joined the meeting with Jagan. Nathwani holds a prominent post in the top management of Reliance Industries.
Earlier, Mukesh and others were accorded a grand welcome by Rajya Sabha member and YSRC parliamentary party leader V Vijay Sai Reddy at Gannavaram airport. Sai Reddy felicitated the guests with shawls and mementoes.
According to sources, Mukesh and Jagan had discussions over the possible investments by the Reliance Group in Andhra Pradesh, including the pending proposal to commence Rs 15,000 crore electronic manufacturing hub at Tirupati. The details are being worked out, sources said.
The last time Mukesh Ambani was in Vijayawada was in February 2018 to sign an agreement with the then Telugu Desam Party government on this electronic manufacturing hub.
He also visited the Real Time Governance Society office at the secretariat and appreciated its functioning.
The Naidu government had allocated 150 acres of land near Renigunta to Reliance for its electronics hub, where it proposed to manufacture mobile phones, television sets and set-top boxes among other electronic gadgets.
However, the project got stalled as about a dozen farmers moved the court expressing unhappiness over the compensation package for acquiring their land.
After Jagan took over as the chief minister, the project went into the cold storage. Now, the government is making fresh efforts to revive the project.
There was also a talk that Ambani was unhappy over the allegations levelled by YSRC leaders against him over the untimely death of Jagan’s father and former chief minister late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.
There were reports in Sakshi those days, quoting a Russian magazine Exile, which claimed that YSR’s death was not an accident but a pre-planned murder, conspired by Mukesh Ambani and others, including some leaders in the Congress party.
It alleged that Ambani had spent nearly Rs 1,000 crore to eliminate YSR for opposing allotment of natural gas and oil reserves worth Rs 38,000 crore in Krishna-Godavari basin to Reliance group. However, the allegations were never substantiated and it turned out to be a fake story.
So, the meeting between Mukesh and Jagan would definitely clear the air and restores the confidence of investors in Andhra Pradesh.
