Kochi IPL: Tharoor in a fix. BJP demands Minister’s dismissal

Mangalore Today News Network

April: 13: Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, locked in a fresh controversy around the Kochi IPL team which he helped set up, on Tuesday hit back at IPL boss Lalit Modi alleging he had made attempts to pressure the winning consortium to abandon their bid for the Kerala outfit.

 

 

Tharoor also denied that he had told Modi not to ask details about owners of the consortium led by Rendezvous that bought the new franchisee.

In a statement, the minister of state for external affairs trained his guns on the powerful cricket board official alleging that various attempts were made by Modi and others to pressure the members of the consortium to abandon their bid in favour of another city in a different state. According to reports, Ahmedabad was being mentioned as the other city.

"I deny Mr Lalit Modi’s allegation that I called him during his meeting with investors in the Kochi consortium in Bangalore on Saturday night in order to press him not to question the composition of the consortium," Tharoor said.

Voicing his displeasure at the turn of events which saw him pitted against Lalit Modi, Tharoor also tweeted, "I have had enough."

"Rendezvous includes a number of people including many I have never met, and Sunanda Pushkar, whom I know well," he said. Tharoor is reportedly planning to marry Sunanda. Rendezvous bough the franchise for the IPL Kochi team for 333 million dollars.

PM must sack Shashi Tharoor: BJP demands

Describing Shashi Tharoor’s controversial relationship with the new IPL team from Kochi as "a copybook case of corruption, "the BJP has said it  "demands the PM must sack Tharoor...and the entire nature of this transaction must be criminally investigated by the CBI."

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad accused Tharoor, who is Minister of State for External Affairs, of inappropriate "patronage and protection." Prasad also charged Tharoor with "criminal misconduct by a public servant."

Tharoor has run into trouble after Indian Premier League Commissioner Lalit Modi tweeted to reveal that Sunanda Pushkar, a close associate of Tharoor, had been gifted equity worth 70 crores in the new Kochi team which was sold for 1530 crores last month.

Tharoor has accepted that he knows Pushkar well but has stressed that he has neither invested in nor financially benefited from the deal that saw the Kochi franchise being sold to a consortium led by Rendezvous World Sports.

There has been much discussion in the media and among cricket circles about who exactly the stakeholders are in the Kochi franchise.

Modi has been pulled up by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for his public disclosure of the Kochi deal. The Kochi team-owners have threatened to take legal action against Modi for breach of confidentiality. They also say Pushkar is entitled to free equity because her marketing skills bring unique experience to the team.

The BJP doesn’t agree.  It accuses Pushkar of having no link with either cricket or Kerala. "Why was she given equity worth 70 crores and in what capacity?" asked Prasad.

SM Krishna meets Sonia Gandhi
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna met Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday against the backdrop of the controversy surrounding his deputy Shashi Tharoor regarding the Kochi IPL team.  But, it was not known as to what figured in the discussion between the Minister and Gandhi.