“He should resign forthwith. If (he does) not, we demand stern action against Pawar from Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh),” BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.
A media report on Friday said Mr. Pawar and his family members had 16 per cent share in City Corporation which was one of the bidders for Pune IPL franchise.
However Mr. Pawar, who also heads the Nationalist Congress Party, told reporters here on Friday morning that no member of his family was part of the IPL teams nor had the family taken part in the bidding process.
He said Anirudh Deshpande, Managing Director of the City Corporation, had made the bid for the team in his individual capacity.
Slamming Mr. Pawar’s claim of no involvement in the Pune IPL bidding, Mr. Prasad said: “Sharad Pawar and family said they had nothing to do with the IPL scandal but in the light of whatever has come out, it is clear that he has mismanaged not only food inflation but cricket too.”
Mr. Pawar’s reasoning that the company board had passed a resolution against involvement in the bid “was a lame excuse”, he said, adding, “Sharad Pawar has misled and misrepresented the country being a senior minister with commercial interest in the bid and not for the love of cricket as he claims.”
Demanding a probe into the matter, Mr. Prasad said Mr. Deshpande’s plan to execute his bid by a different consortium comprising a Mumbai construction company, the Maharashtra Cricket Association and others was in violation of the company law.
The BJP leader also demanded a joint parliamentary probe into IPL finances.
“There should be an investigation into the entire City Corporation, Rs.1,176 crore is a big amount,” he added.
The Pune IPL team franchise was won by the Sahara group.
No comments:
Post a Comment