Mining magnate Anil Agarwal has said Gujarat was picked over Maharashtra for the Vedanta-Foxconn’s Rs 1.52 lakh crore semiconductor project based on “professional and independent” advice, as the political row in Maharashtra over the facility escalated on Thursday.

Seeking to soothe frayed nerves in Maharashtra after the project was shifted out of the state, Agarwal, who is the Chairman of Vedanta, also said his mining group is committed to investing in Maharashtra as well. Gujarat, he said, was chosen as it met the company’s “expectations”.

Originally, Vedanta and its Taiwanese partner Foxconn were looking at Maharashtra for setting up the chip factory but on 13 September signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat government for investing Rs 1.52 lakh crore in the unit. The facility was earlier proposed to be set up in Pune district.

Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis accused the opposition of making false claims over the shifting of the project, while Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and the Congress stepped up its attack on the government over losing the mega deal.

Fadnavis also questioned the opposition over the Nanar refinery project proposed in Maharashtra’s coastal district of Ratnagiri. The project was opposed by the Shiv Sena.

The Thackeray-led Shiv Sena said the mega semiconductor project going to Gujarat was an attack on Maharashtra’s “prestige”.

This was just the beginning and one day the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government might even “trade Mumbai,” said a scathing editorial in Sena mouthpiece “Saamana”.

NCP president Sharad Pawar told a press conference in Pune that the Centre’s assurance to Maharashtra that it will get a bigger project than the semiconductor plant is akin to trying to “convince a child”.