MUMBAI, Jan. 13 -- In the Mahayuti's last campaign rally for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election, held at Shivaji Park on Monday, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde countered Thackeray cousins' verbal attack against the government, at the same venue on Sunday. Monday's address to the electorate was a response to the Thackerays' hinting that "this was the final battle for Mumbai and Marathi manoos" and the purported fake narrative being spread related to the expansion of Adani group. Pointing to BMC's operations over time, the chief minister said, "people who were engaged in corruption in the civic body for 25 years and did not do anything for the Mumbai and Marathi manoos" were opposing industrialists and investment. He also pointed to the Shiv Sena's (undivided) initiative of Shiv Vadapav years ago, which he claimed failed soon after its launch. The chief minister added, "If the Marathi manoos is in danger now, what were you doing for 25 years? I would like to reiterate that nobody can separate Mumbai from Maharashtra and throw Marathi manoos out of it." As a rebuttal to Thackeray cousins' allegations that the Mahayuti government had imposed Hindi as compulsory language from Class 1, Fadnavis underscored that it was the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) that accepted the report of the committee appointed to take steps to implement the three-language education system in the state. "It was his government and cabinet that accepted the proposal in January 2022, to make Hindi compulsory from Class 1 to 12," he said. Fadnavis also played videos of Uddhav and Raj Thackeray taking digs at one another after they separated 20 years ago, and displayed pictures of non-BJP governments with billionaire businessman Gautam Adani and other Adani group executives while inking their various memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for investment by the group. Fadnavis said that almost all the non-BJP governments, including those in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala had signed MoUs with Adani for investment in their respective states. Responding to MNS chief Raj Thackeray speaking about Adani Group's meteoric rise since 2014, Fadnavis said: "Not only the Adani Group but every leading industrial house grew multifold since 2014 because of the industry friendly policies of the Modi government. As a result, the Indian economy progressed to fourth position from 11th position in the last 12 years. I have brought the figures of 25 leading industrial groups to validate that. Mumbai-based Sun Pharma's revenue in this period grew by 1,552%, Tata Sons by 664%, TVS by 529%, Aditya Birla by 566%, Vedanta by 400%, among others; against that the Adani Group grew by 580%." He also pointed out that the Thackerays were "spreading lies" about the Mumbai airport and the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP). "The Navi Mumbai airport was conceptualized in 1988 and not by the Modi government. But the Mahayuti government completed it in just five years," said Fadnavis. "Mumbai's growth was stalled because there was only one airport in the city. The Navi Mumbai airport will help in the city's GDP growth. We are not restricted to the second airport, but also developing a third - Mumbai will soon have three airports like London," he said. "Meanwhile, the DRP was given to Adani by the Thackeray-led MVA government by scrapping a tender awarded by our government. We tweaked the tender related norms to ensure that the developer was not benefited out of TDR," he added. Deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde added that the Thackeray cousins had parted ways 20 years ago for their own interest, and "were now together for self-interest". "They are now crying foul in the name of Marathi manoos and Mumbai. But neither is in danger. In fact, it is the Thackeray cousins that are in trouble. They are blaming the government for the investment by Adani, but both the Thackerays are forgetting that they had held meetings and hosted Adani at their homes," said Shinde....