Pawar has stake in IPL bidder; BJP wants him to go

The IPL controversy returned to haunt Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar with fresh revelations about his stake in a Pune-based construction company that had made an unsuccessful bid for an IPL team.....

The IPL controversy returned to haunt Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar with fresh revelations about his stake in a Pune-based construction company that had made an unsuccessful bid for an IPL team. The BJP on Friday demanded his resignation and wanted the Prime Minister to take stern action against Pawar if he didnt step down on his own.

Pawar who had been insisting that he was not involved in any IPL team or the bidding process and his family members reportedly hold 16.22 per cent stake in City Corporation,a Pune-based construction company which unsuccessfully bid for an IPL franchise.

The Pawar family stake is held through two companies, Lap Finance and Consultancy Pvt Ltd and Namratta Film Enterprises Pvt Ltd,both owned by the Union Agriculture Minister,his wife Pratibha and daughter and Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule.

Sule said the Pawar family had no connection with the bid. We are just minority stake-holders in City Corporation Ltd. We dont even sit in the board meeting, she said. She said the board had objected to the bid and Aniruddha Deshpande,the companys Managing Director,acted on a completely individual level.

The BJP said Pawar has misled the nation about his involvement in the IPL and misrepresented facts by claiming earlier that his family was not involved in the bidding. If Sharad Pawar does not resign,we demand that the Prime Minister take stern action against him, BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

The Congress,on the other hand,sought to play the role of the loyal ally. Sharad Pawar is a valuable ally. These questions you have to put to him in all fairness, AICC spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters in response to questions about the BJPs demand for Pawars resignation. Do you expect the Opposition to demand anything else? he said.

Pawar also denied the allegations and said Deshpande acted in his individual capacity. I have stated earlier also that neither I nor any of my family member is involved in any IPL team or the bidding process and I reiterate that statement, said the Agriculture Minister.

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Asked why he did not disclose these details when the controversy had broken out,Pawar said,There was no necessity.

Pawar said the MD had been given permission by the board to get involved in the bid in an individual capacity. In City Corporations board meeting on the 16th and 17th of that month,the board took a unanimous decision not (to get) involved. The Managing Director was eager to get associated with the bidding process,so he was allowed in his individual capacity, he said.

Mr Deshpande,Maharashtra Cricket Association and Akruti of Mumbai collectively tried to get this bid but they did not succeed. Neither Mr Deshpande nor his colleagues succeeded in getting IPL teams. The effort was made,that is correct. But they didnt get the bid, he said. I was somebody in that organisation (BCCI). Had I used any influence,do you think it would have lost the bid? he asked.

The BJP refused to buy Pawars argument. The tender document was purchased and the bidding was done in the name of City Corporation. To say that Deshpande did it in his individual capacity doesnt hold water. According to the campany law,either you are a corporation or an individual shareholder. All these are lame excuses and bogus arguments, Prasad said. He also reiterated the BJPs demand for a JPC probe into the entire IPL controversy.