Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar on Monday dismissed rumours that the biennial Aero India air show and aviation exhibition will be shifted out of Karnataka’s capital Bengaluru. Kumar said Minister of Defence Nirmala Sitharaman has confirmed the same.
“There is no decision on shifting AeroIndia 2019 venue out of Bengaluru to Lucknow, as clarified by Defence Min [ministry] officials,” the minister tweeted. “I have spoken to [Nirmala Sitharaman], who has confirmed the same. There were similar rumours last time too, which were proved to be unfounded.”
Kumar’s response came just hours after Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy wrote to the Centre on Monday, saying Bengaluru is the “most suitable” place to hold the event. He also urged the Centre to not shift the event out of Bengaluru.
Union minister DV Sadananda Gowda too said he had not heard of any proposal to move the show out of the state, reported the Hindustan Times. “I will meet the defence minister on Tuesday and convince her against such a move, if at all it is being planned,” he added.
On Saturday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath had asked Sitharaman to allow his state to host the Aero India show in October. Responding to the comments, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara said reports of the event being moved out of Bengaluru were “very unfortunate”. “We have been India’s defence hub since Independence, but under the National Democratic Alliance, we are constantly losing key defence projects and flagship programmes,” he tweeted.
Bengaluru has hosted Aero India, which is Asia’s biggest air show, since the inaugural event in 1996.
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