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| Kochi IPL row may turn out to be a boon for Congress | | BEHIND THE NEWS | | ABID SHAH
NEW DELHI, APR 16: Wittingly or unwittingly Opposition – both BJP and Left parties -- crying foul since last weekend over the involvement of Union Minister of State Shashi Tharoor in getting Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket franchise for Kochi team have walked into a trap that very much suits the Congress party.
This is irrespective of the fact whether Shashi Tharoor or his cohort Sunanda Pushkar kicked off the Kochi team controversy consciously or unconsciously. The reason for this is the more noises the Opposition makes on Kochi’s entry into high visibility IPL cricket, the more anti-South these parties would appear before the people not only in Kerala but also its neighbouring States in the South.
Significantly, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry are slated to go for Assembly polls in a year’s time from now along with West Bengal. In 2011 the term of these four Assemblies would be over and elections could be announced as soon as in the second or third month of the next year.
And, thus, the Congress despite keeping pretence of weighing the issue of propriety thrown up by the IPL controversy seems to be in no hurry to resolve the tangle that is fast dragging all the warring parties into a highly emotive zone.
An equivocal stand has been taken by the Congress on the IPL issue. And it has been said that a decision regarding the fate of Shashi Tharoor would be taken only after senior Congress Ministers probe the entire affair and present a report to the Prime Minister when he comes back from his visit abroad.
This not only allows the Congress to buy more time but also drag the controversy for a few more days where the message among the people of not only Kerala but also next door Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry could well be that it is Opposition that has been out to thwart the move for another team from South to join the IPL cricket.
Thus, a shrewd game is on under the cover of IPL cricket where among other things one of the Kochi consortium’s functionaries has said that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been behind the move to scuttle Kerala team’s chances in order to make way for Ahmedabad’s team. His idea has been to target BJP where down South the view about the party could change, particularly after BJP has been on the rise in parts of South and could win the recent local elections in Karnataka.
reover, Let Front that now rules Kerala too has been dragged in Kochi team controversy where some of its Central party leaders have demanded dismissal of Tharoor. Clearly Congress in the game of political positioning via the route of cricket wants to get ahead of the Left by its strong advocacy of Kochi’s right to enter the IPL cricket through one of its Ministers. And, thus, despite silence by the Kerala State leaders of the Left parties on the issue, the Central Left Front leadership was provoked into demanding Central Minister’s head on the IPL issue.
Not just this Kerala has a strong contingent of workers, professionals and wage earners in the Gulf. And the Opposition attack on Sunanda Pushkar can well be seen by the sections of the electorate depending on the remittances from Gulf as an attack on a successful UAE entrepreneur of Indian origin by Opposition’s “fuddy-duddies”.
Thus, even if Tharoor has to go Congress stands to gain. This is known to the top brass of the party. And, thus, they sit pretty watching and often aggravating the Kochi IPL row.
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