Mr Tharoor, when asked to comment on persistent reports that he was planning to tie the knot on June 26 with Ms Pushkar, a Dubai-based Indian socialite who has already been married twice before, rubbished the reports.
An aide close to the minister also denied that SMS invitations had been sent to several leading Indian businessmen in the port city, whom many believe have funded and backed the so-called Kochi franchisees. The aide clarified that Ms Pushkar only had a five per cent stake in the company.
The Kochi franchise is now accusing Mr Modi of breaking the confidentiality clause.
As the minister seeks to distance himself from the fresh controversy, the issue of just who exactly owns the Kochi franchise in the expanded IPL is under the scanner with league commissioner Lalit Modi revealing details of the ownership pattern.
In his Twitter post, Mr Modi named the members of the group that put in the successful Rs 1,532-crore bid on March 21, revealing that the free equity holders in the Rendezvous Sports World consortium partners include Kisan Shailender and Pushpa Gaikwad, Ms Pushkar, Puja Gulati, Jayant Kotalwar, Vishnu Prasad and Sundip Agarwal.
The group was given 25 per cent of the franchise at no cost with the Dubai-based Ms Pushkar owning 18 per cent and the rest divided among the others named. “A lot of you, asking shareholders and events surrounding the Kochi team. I am compiling a note shortly and will put an official release soon,” Mr Modi said, and added, “I was told not to get into who owns Rendezvous, specially Sunanda Pushkar. Why?”
Mr Modi spelt out further details in a subsequent Tweet. “Kochi shareholders are: Rendezvous 25 per cent free, Rendezvous one per cent, Anchor 27 per cent, Parinee 26 per cent, Film Waves combine 12 per cent, Anand Shyam eight per cent, Vivek Venugopal one per cent.”
Rendezvous has said in response to the tweets by the IPL commissioner that he was violating confidentiality agreements about team ownership details.
Mr Tharoor was instrumental — as an avid cricket fan keen to see Kerala on the IPL map — in helping put together the group that successfully bid $333.33 million for Kochi, but has insisted that he had no financial interest in the team or the franchise.
“All I did on my part was to offer encouragement, blessings and expert advice, when required, to the bidders. Beyond that, I had no role to play. It’s a group of business people and I understand it’s a business decision,” Mr Tharoor had said after the bids were opened on March 21. “I am not even sure whether I know all of them, nor do I have any knowledge of the decision that how much they were going to bid. I know this Rendezvous Sports World and had met the Gaekwad brothers.”
“I have given them all kind of encouragement but my role was limited. It was like... What shall I say... mentor sounds too grand a word,” Mr Tharoor had said.
Age Correspondents