Kochi IPL’s Congressman drags Gujarat CM into tangle

Is Shashi Tharoor trying to save his job by playing Congress party’s close to heart ‘Narendra Modi card’?

Indian Premier League’s Kochi franchise spokesperson Satyajit Gaikwad on Thursday (April 15) alleged that IPL commissioner Lalit Modi is targeting the new team under pressure from Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Satyajit Gaekwad is ex-Congress MP from Gujarat and also ex President of All India Youth Congress. He lost Vadodara Lok Sabha seat twice after he won it by 17 votes margin in late 90s.

“We were told that we won’t be allowed to work. The Adani group and Narendra Modi had a stake in the Ahmedabad IPL bid. After we won the bid, our investors spoke to (former BCCI chief) Sharad Pawar and asked him which city to choose. He said ‘you can take your pick’, so we decided to take Kochi,” the franchise’ spokesperson Satyajit Gaekwad told reporters in New Delhi.

“The inaugural IPL bidding happened when Vasundhra Raje Scindia was Rajasthan’s Chief minister. Vasundhra and Narendra Modi may have put pressure on Lalit (Modi) to bring a team to Ahmedabad. There is politics involved,” he added.

Gaekwad said Lalit Modi should make the ownership pattern of other franchises public and sought government intervention in the matter. “Since Lalit Modi has disclosed all the stakeholders of the Kochi team, he should also furnish details of other franchises. I ask the government to reveal the ownership details of other IPL teams under the corporate law. Government should investigate. We are clean and we have nothing to hide,” he asserted.

The Kochi team is under the scanner for allegedly giving ‘free equity’ to Dubai-based entrepreneur Sunanda Pushkar, who is a close friend of the Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor.