Pawar says key members of Kochi consortium want to pull out

New Delhi, Apr 15 (ANI): Union Agriculture Minister and ICC president-designate Sharad Pawar on Thursday disclosed that key members of the Kochi consortium now wanted the team to be based out of Ahmedabad, instead of Kochi.

He said that four members of the team had met him with a request to help them in transferring the team to Ahmedabad.

He declined to name the members of the Kochi team.

The development came a day after IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi threatened to sue Rendezvous for defamation. He said he would take Rendezvous to court for saying that he offered them 50 million dollars to quit the franchise.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor has reportedly sought time for a meeting with UPA Chairperson and Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi.

On Wednesday, Tharoor ruled out chances of him resigning from the Union Cabinet over the IPL issue saying that he has not done anything wrong or misused his office.

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, had indicated in Washington that he would take action in the issue if warranted after his return from Brazil, where he is at present to attend the fourth IBSA summit and the BRIC summit.

Earlier, Modi in his email to BCCI chief Shashank Manohar had stated it was Tharoor who called him and instructed him not to reveal identities of the stakeholders of Kochi IPL franchisee.

Tharoor, according to news channels, has denied Modi's allegation, and said: "I deny Modi's allegation that I called him during his meeting with investors in the Kochi consortium in Bangalore in order to press him not to question the composition of the consortium." (ANI)