Congress leaders P. Chidambaram , T S Singh Deo and Supriya Shrinate address a press conference at AICC headquarters, in New Delhi, Wednesday, January 17, 2024.
Credit: PTI Photo
During a press conference on the Congress party's Lok Sabha polls manifesto, P Chidambaram, a senior leader of the party, seemed uncomfortable when asked about the Adani Group's proposed investment in Congress-ruled Telangana.
Instead of answering the question, Chidambaram redirected it to his party colleague Supriya Shrinate, who declined to comment.
Chidambaram swiftly passed the microphone to Shrinate when asked about the investment proposal.
The incident was captured on video and has since gone viral.
Shrinate, in turn, requested that the media focus on queries related to the manifesto, stating that the press conference was specifically for that purpose.
Rahul Gandhi, a senior Congress MP, often accuses Prime Minister Narendra Modi of favoring industrialist Gautam Adani and refers to Adani as Modi's "friend."
The Adani Group recently signed four Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the Telangana government led by Revanth Reddy, involving an investment of over ₹12,400 crore.
As part of the deal, the Adani Group will invest ₹5,000 crore in a data center, ₹5,000 crore in two pup storage projects, and ₹1,400 crore in a cement plant.
Khushboo Sundar, a prominent BJP leader, also criticised the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) party for their involvement in the same issue.
"Here, even a shameless DMK is not different. After singing a tune of "Adani is Modi, Modi is Adani", they have signed up a ₹42700 crores pact with Adani group," she noted on X.