Lankan Official Retracts "Pressure From Modi" Claim Over Project Contract
NDTV
The government has not commented on the now-retracted allegation by the chief of Sri Lanka's electricity authority.
In a huge political controversy in Sri Lanka over an energy project contract, an allegation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi pressured President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to award the project to Gautam Adani's group has been retracted by the senior official who made the claim and has also been strongly denied by President Rajapaksa.
The government has not commented on the now-retracted allegation by the chief of Sri Lanka's electricity authority.
The allegations involve a 500-megawatt renewable energy project Sri Lanka's Mannar district. On Friday, MMC Ferdinando, the Chairman of Sri Lanka's Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), told a parliamentary panel that President Rajapaksa had told him that PM Modi had pressured him to give the wind power project directly to the Adani Group.
A video posted on Twitter appeared to show Mr Ferdinando making the claim at an open hearing of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE). According to newspaper reports, Mr Ferdinando told the panel that Mr Rajapaksa "told me that he was under pressure from Modi".
The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance, which includes the Shinde Sena and Ajit Pawar's NCP, is en route to a thumping win in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly election, thanks to its two smaller allies.
The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader said the results are not acceptable to his party and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition.
The Adani Group said that none of its 11 public companies are implicated or accused of any wrongdoing.
The MVA had only been given a (very) slim chance of upsetting the in-power BJP-led alliance's applecart in this election; only one of 11 exit polls studied by NDTV believed it can win.
The first phase saw voting in 43 constituencies, while the second phase saw 38 seats up for grabs. Chief Minister Hemant Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), leading the ruling INDIA alliance, faces a fierce challenge from the BJP-led NDA.
Assembly Election Results 2024: Maharashtra's 288 voted Wednesday in a single phase, and an average of 11 exit polls gives the ruling Mahayuti 155 seats.
Bypoll Assembly Election Results 2024 Live: Bypolls were held on 48 assembly seats in 14 states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal.
During the event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was honoured (in absentia) with the Dr Martin Luther King Jr Global Peace Award for Minority Upliftment.
The DMK MPs held a meeting today to discuss what they called the BJP-led Centre's betrayal of the state and its people
Meanwhile, Kamlochan Kashyap, DIG South Bastar said a joint operation has been planned after getting information about the movement of a group of Maoists in the area.
It happened around 11 am when a youth from Sevdha village came on a motorcycle to the Indian Oil petrol pump in Dulhapur village and asked for a refill worth Rs 100, Superintendent of Police Brijesh Kumar Srivastava said.