The verbal war between Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor intensified on Friday with the IPL Commissioner accusing the Minister of State for External Affairs of having an "hidden agenda" in the Kochi consortium's franchise bid.
"They are trying to put dispute into this. But we are here to stay. We have a robust league and we will continue doing a good job irrespective of hidden agendas.
"We will not allow Mr Tharoor to try and shadow this up. Tharoor has a different agenda and it will be shut down, believe me," Modi said.
The Indian Premier League Chairman (IPL) also alleged that Tharoor wants to move the newly-won IPL Kochi franchise to Abu Dhabi but said he will not let that happen.
"This morning, I learnt from a colleague of mine that Mr Tharoor has approached that 'he would like their support to move the team out to Abu Dhabi. I don't know which way they are going. The theme is to play in India, We will not allow any team to play outside India," he told a TV news channel.
"All these allegations are to digress from giving the truth as to who the shareholders are and that's the key and that's what we are looking for. I will raise it in the next governing council meeting," he said.
Modi also denied accusations that political pressure was put on investors to bid for the Ahmedabad franchise.
"There was no pressure from anybody. They went and met Mr Narendra Modi. He told them very clearly that you won this franchise for Kochi, so keep it to Kochi. They came to ask me to move it. They should have bid for Ahmedabad. They had the opportunity to bid for it."
Modi was also confident that there was no move within the BCCI to clip his wings by appointing President Shashank Manohar as IPL Co-Chairman.
"The constitution provides me to be Chairman right now. There is no co-Chairman position right now. We will deal with it. This is an internal matter of BCCI and IPL."
Modi though admitted that there was a divide in the BCCI on the style of functioning.
"I am sure there will be a divide. We have lived with the divide in the past and we will live with it in future. But we are not going to allow it (IPL) to derail. It's a baby we have built together and we will preserve it and preserve it to the hilt," he said. PTI
