Mumbai, February 24 Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Tuesday seized upon critical comments made by Bajaj Auto MD and CEO Rajiv Bajaj about the Maharashtra government's electric vehicle (EV) policy, blaming the BJP government for its "failure".
Bajaj, in an interview with news channel CNBC-TV18, warned of a possible "failure" of the state government's EV policy.
Thackeray, a former Maharashtra minister, posted on X that the BJP-led government allowed a once "active and dynamic" EV policy to collapse.
"The EV policy 2021 (introduced by the Maha Vikas Aghadi government) was active and dynamic, giving a boost to the entire sector. Businesses, customers, everyone in the EV business considered our policy to be the best in India," Thackeray wrote.
"Unfortunately, with a change in government, the BJP's entire focus shifted, and now we see that a policy that showed success in its initial years has been made to collapse by the BJP regime," he added.
In the interview, responding to a question about whether states were uniform in disbursing EV subsidies, Bajaj said that delays were not uncommon, but the dues were eventually cleared.
However, the situation was different in Maharashtra, he said.
"In my 35 years, I have never witnessed anything that I could call a policy failure by the government. But I think it is about to happen, with the Maharashtra government's EV policy," Bajaj said.
The subsidies for EVs that were disbursed until April 2023 have slowed dramatically, he claimed, adding that most, if not all, of the industry was affected by these delays.