NCP is getting sucked deeper into the cesspool of sordid allegations about IPL affairs, with the focus now firmly on the role of its two top leaders, party boss and Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and civil aviation minister Praful Patel, reports Times of India.
The disclosure in The Economic Times on Wednesday that Patel had organized an IPL document on projections of valuations of new IPL franchises for Shashi Tharoor raised speculation about the involvement of the NCP brass in the T20 controversy to fever pitch.
The rising possibility of the NCP leaders, or their children, having had financial gain from their involvement in IPL is pregnant with political meaning. It could place the NCP, which has had a relationship of understated tension with the Congress, at a disadvantage and skew equations against it, especially in Maharashtra.
It transpires that Sharad Pawar's son-in-law Sadanand Sule has a stake in Multi Screen Media which has bagged the IPL broadcast rights, though his daughter Supriya on Thursday insisted it was inherited. It also transpires that Praful Patel's daughter Poorna, employed with IPL as hospitality manager, sent the email with information on IPL valuation to Praful Patel's office from where it was forwarded to Tharoor.
Look at it anyway, this is the not the kind of arm's length relationship with a commercial enterprise like IPL that central ministers are expected to keep. Shashi Tharoor was made to pay with his job for his failure to maintain this distance.
While the spate of allegations has dented the NCP's leverage with the Congress, the latter may not seek to scalp the NCP leaders. As the government's numbers in Lok Sabha have thinned following the Women's Bill, retaining the support of even nine NCP members might outweigh the temptation of driving home the advantage.
This is what is expected to keep the NCP leaders out of real trouble, though they might have to seek peace at some cost. The Congress seemed in no hurry to seek any advantage from the situation. On Thursday, it cancelled its regular briefing if only to dodge questions on whether Patel would be held to the same standards of political rectitude as Tharoor.
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