The politics over cricket came out in the open a day after the Tharoor-Modi spat hit the headlines.
While Kerala rose to the last man to defend Shashi Tharoor, IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi was seen as the man who was bent on sabotaging Kerala’s IPL ambitions.
In Mumbai, the Congress party, though officially neutral on the face-off over the Kochi IPL team, blamed ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for attempting to discredit party colleague Tharoor.
The main Opposition party BJP also entered the fray by terming the entire issue a blatant case of corruption and demanded the Prime Minister sack Tharoor from the government and order a CBI probe into the entire nature of the transaction involving Sunanda.
Meanwhile, Kerala cricket fans said the IPL top brass, including Lalit Modi, was trying to dissolve the Kochi franchise. The latest developments regarding the ownership pattern of the team is also part of the plot. Cricket lovers in Kochi demanded that Modi should be removed from the post of IPL commissioner.
A former office bearer of Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) told Business Standard that Modi had tried to sabotage Kochi franchise from the very beginning. He said the sudden increase in the security money to Rs 5,000 crore was the first move by Modi to prevent the Kochi franchise.
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“Because of this, actor Mohanlal and Bollywood director Priyadarshan had to withdraw from bidding. But, in the second round of bidding at Chennai, the deposit amount was lowered to just Rs 500 crore,” he said.
“The plan was to have an Ahmedabad-based team with the active participation and support of chief minister Narendra Modi. But it was Tharoor who became the white knight in the game and hence the Kochi franchise,” he added.
In Mumbai, a senior AICC member told Business Standard: “The possibility of a nexus between a few Congress members, who are opposed to Tharoor’s rise in the party, and (Lalit) Modi cannot be ruled out”. He said Modi might have had the backing of coalition partners of the UPA government at the Centre.
Meanwhile, claims that Tharoor’s rise in Kerala politics had propelled him to a point where his rivals may have been worried that he might become the next chief minister, after assembly elections in 2011, were not discounted by Tharoor’s colleagues.
“Perhaps this was an attack to jeopardise his political future,” a Maharashtra Congress leader said.