Allegations against Narendra Modi baseless: State minister

The controversy surrounding the Kochi IPL team owned by the Rendezvous group seems to have gripped Gujarat as well.

Brushing aside allegations against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is also the President of Cricket Association, Gujarat minister of state for home Amit Shah said the claims levelled by politicians were baseless.

Shah's reactions have come after Satyajit Gaikwad, a spokesperson of the Kochi franchisee and former Congress MP from Vadodara, had yesterday alleged the chief minister and IPL Chairman Lalit Modi were plotting against the Kochi IPL team.

Hinting at a political conspiracy, he had further alleged that Narendra Modi and Lalit Modi wanted to shift the Kochi team to Ahmedabad.

Apart from Gaekwad, Narhari Amin, former president of GCA, too, had alleged that Narendra Modi was behind the whole IPL Kochi controversy. He also held the chief minister responsible for not having a Gujarat team in IPL.

“GCA or its president (Modi) has nothing to do with the entire controversy,” Shah who is also vice-president of GCA told reporters on Wednesday.

Shah said that the allegations were made by politicians and not by the owners of the IPL Kochi team. “Cricket should be above politics. Moreover, franchises were awarded the team following open bidding process wherein no cricketing association or GCA has any role to play. The highest bidder would bag the team,” he said.

He said that Ahmedabad has two cricket grounds of international standards and any team was welcome to come and play here.

In a reply to a question of whether there was a meeting between Lalit Modi, industrialist Gautam Adani, one of the bidders of Ahmedabad team and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi before the bidding process started in Ahmedabad, Shah said: “I am not aware of any such meeting. Such meetings has no meaning as far as open bid system is concerned.”