Poll-Bound Gujarat has landed yet another mega project that Maharashtra was pitching for. A Rs 22,000-crore military transport aircraft manufacturing unit, which according to the NCP was supposed to come up in Nagpur, will be built in Vadodara. Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka were also in the competition to secure the project.

The defence project involves a deal wherein European defence major Airbus and Tata will manufacture C295 transport aircraft to replace the ageing Avro-748 planes of the Indian Air Force. The loss to Gujarat has given the Opposition in Maharashtra the ammo to attack the Shinde Sena-BJP coalition government.