The next edition of Defexpo - India's premier exhibition for Land, Naval and Internal Homeland Security Systems - will be held at Lucknow from February 5 to 8, 2020, the Ministry of Defence announced on July 21.

"Main Theme of the DefExpo India-2020 will be 'India: The Emrging Defence Manufacturing Hub' and focus will be on 'Digital Transformation of Defence' (sic)," according to a statement released by the Ministry of Defence.

The first eight editions of Defxpo were held in New Delhi. The Exhibition was shifted in 2016 to Goa, the home state of the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. Defexpo moved to Chennai for its 10th edition during the Defence Ministership of Nirmala Sitharaman. Rajnath Singh has continued the trend of changing the location of this international exhibition to the Defence Minister's home turf. He represents the Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency in Parliament.

Singh took to Twitter to take political ownership of the shift to Lucknow, which he declared "will highlight UP's emergence as an attractive destination for investment in the defence sector and act as a platform for alliances and joint ventures in the defence sector".

Successive Defence Ministers have attempting to expand India's defence industrial base to their respective constituencies as an act of political patronage. George Fernandes set up an Ordnance Factory at Nalanda in Bihar, Pranab Mukherjee patronised the Ordnance Factory at Ishapore and other units in West Bengal, AK Antony moved ancillaries of Defence Public Sector Undertakings to Kerala and even took political credit for the building of India's first indigenous aircraft carrier at Cochin Shipyard. Parrikar attempted to provide stimulus for defence manufacture in Goa. And Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Defence Industrial Corridor for Tamil Nadu

Successive Defence Ministers have attempting to expand India's defence industrial base to their respective constituencies as an act of political patronage. George Fernandes set up an Ordnance Factory at Nalanda in Bihar, Pranab Mukherjee patronised the Ordnance Factory at Ishapore and other units in West Bengal, AK Antony moved ancillaries of Defence Public Sector Undertakings to Kerala and even took political credit for the building of India's first indigenous aircraft carrier at Cochin Shipyard. Parrikar attempted to provide stimulus for defence manufacture in Goa. And Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Defence Industrial Corridor for Tamil Nadu, besides one in Uttar Pradesh, which accounts for the largest number of Parliamentarians including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

For the first time ever, DefExpo is going to be held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (U.P).

The exhibition will highlight U.P’s emergence as an attractive destination for investment in the defence sector and act as a platform for alliances and joint ventures in the defence industry.

— ????? ?????? ????????/ RMO India (@DefenceMinIndia) July 21, 2019

The mobility of Defexpo since 2016 has been accompanied by a pitch to hard sell the new location as an investment destination to the top honchos of the Defence Industry and also the foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) who attend this exhibition. India is the one of the biggest customers for the arms bazaar.

Singh took to Twitter to take political ownership of the shift to Lucknow, which he declared "will highlight UP's emergence as an attractive destination for investment in the defence sector and act as a platform for alliances and joint ventures in the defence sector".

Rajnath Singh was quick to correlate Defexpo's Lucknow shift to the promotion of Uttar Pradesh as a defence manufacturing hub. "Uttar Pradesh has a strong defence industrial infrastructure. It has 4 Units of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd at Lucknow, Kanpur, Korwa and Naini (Prayagraj), 9 Ordnance factory units spread over Kanpur, Korwa, Shahjahanpur and Firozabad and one unit of BEL at Ghaziabad," he Tweeted.

"One of the two Defence Industrial Corridors of India is also planned in Uttar Pradesh. Defence Corridor will encourage Defence Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) including our Indian Defence Industry and promote Defence PSUs," he added.