Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath reached Mumbai tonight to ring the bell at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) during the listing of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) bonds.
The Chief Minister will also interact with prominent industrialists and Bollywood celebrities on Wednesday at Hotel Trident and invite them to invest in Uttar Pradesh.
Lucknow is the first city of north India to release the bond of its municipal corporation and soon the municipal corporations of Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Kanpur Nagar and Agra will follow suit. The Rs 200 crore-bond issue was floated just before Diwali and was oversubscribed by 4.5 times to raise Rs 450 crore. The 10-year bond closed at a very attractive coupon rate of 8.5 per cent only because India Inc has “shown faith in the potentiality and prospects of Uttar Pradesh”.
The CM will then meet top executives of companies like Tata, L&T, Hiranandani, among others. He will be meeting celebrities of the film industry during the second part of his Mumbai visit to encourage them to invest in UP. Actors Randeep Hooda, Jimmy Sheirgill and filmmakers like Subhash Ghai, Pahlaj Nihlani, Rajkumar Santoshi, Boney Kapoor, Bhushan Kumar, Neeraj Pathak, Tigmanshu Dhulia and trade analysts like Taran Adarsh, Komal Nahta are reportedly set to attend the meeting. Gorakhpur MP and actor Ravi Kishan is also set to be a part of the meeting.
Previously, the Adityanath Government had held a meeting with Bollywood celebrities in Lucknow in September. At that time, Anupam Kher and Udit Narayan were among the attendees. The UP government is planning the country’s “biggest and most beautiful film city” in Gautam Buddh Nagar, it was announced in September.
The Shiv Sena has objected to the Uttar Pradesh film city and the way the Uttar Pradesh government is “wooing the Bollywood”. Obliquely referring to Adityanath’s visit, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray today sounded out a sharp note, saying nobody will be allowed to “forcibly” take away business from his state.
“We are not jealous if someone progresses, we do not have any problem with someone’s progress if one competes. But if you are going to forcibly take anything away, then, of course, I won’t let it happen and you (industrialists) will not be willing to go,” Thackeray said at an event organised by IMC, a small businesses-focused lobby group.
“Some people are coming today; they will also meet you all and ask you to come (for investments). But they do not know the magnetic strength (of Maharashtra), it is so powerful that forget people going from here to there, it should not so happen that somebody from there comes here,” he said.
The Maharashtra Chief Minister had earlier warned against attempts to malign or finish off the film industry from Mumbai.
Meanwhile, in Mumbai, politics over Adityanath about his visit to Mumbai has begun. Sachin Sawant of Maharashtra Congress slammed the UP CM, saying that there is a “jungle raj” in Uttar Pradesh and that Adityanath has conspired with the Central government to defame Bollywood and Maharashtra. He said that Adityanath might be coming to “threaten Bollywood celebrities and industrialists to move business to Uttar Pradesh”, adding that adequate security should be given to these celebrities and industrialists. Adityanath will also address a press conference in Mumbai and leave tomorrow 7pm for Lucknow.
WITH INPUTS FROM AGENCIES
