Probe MVA's liquor policy, demands BJP Mumbai chief

Mumbai, Feb. Feb 28 The Mumbai BJP President Ashish Shelar on Tuesday demanded a probe into the excise and liquor policy of the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, alleging it was riddled with corruption.

The plea came after the arrest of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in an alleged liquor scam case by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26.

Speaking to the media, Shelar said that the manner in which Sisodiya is charged with extortion in Delhi in the liquor scam, the same was perpetrated during that period by the then (MVA) government in Maharashtra.

Justifying, he reeled out the excise incentives given by the MVA regime headed by then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to the liqour manufacturers, tax exemptions to foreign liquours, licence fees concessions to bars-pubs and permitting the sale of wine through shops and supermarkets.

"Are the threads of the CBI Delhi probe extending till Maharashtra? In Maharashtra, will the file of the concessions bounty granted be opened? Is that why (Delhi Chief Minister) Arvind Kejriwal came for a visit? The then Thackeray government of alcoholics under suspicion," Shelar said in a tweet.

Two days after Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann called on Thackeray on February 24 ostensibly to forge a united platform against the BJP Sisodia was nabbed by the CBI, sparking a furore.

In January 2022, the then MVA government had come out with a new liquor policy, which among other things, permitted the sale of wines through neighbourhood shops and supermarkets, which kicked up a huge political row.

Maharashtra's move came a week after neighbouring Madhya Pradesh had permitted liquor sales at all its airports, selected supermarkets in four cities and also permitting home bar licences to those earning Rs 1 crore or more annually.

Maharashtra has around four dozen wineries, mostly in and around Nashik, plus Pune, Sangli, Ahmednagar, Solapur and Buldhanam, which totally account for 80 per cent of India's wine production, and contribute over two-thirds revenue to the annual Rs 1,000 crore domestic wine industry.

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