In the first expose after the launch of his political party, Arvind Kejriwal accused the Gujarat government of extending favours to industrial houses.

New Delhi: In the first expose after the launch of his political party, Arvind Kejriwal accused the Gujarat government of extending favours to industrial houses.

Kejriwal charged that the Gujarat state Petroleum Corporation gave 10 percent of participating interest in its gas fields worth $ 20 billion to two companies called Geo Global and Jubilant Empro pvt Ltd., free of cost.

"How were these two companies identified? As per our knowledge, there was no competitive bidding," said Kejriwal.

Questioning the credibility of Geo Global, Kejriwal said that the company was incorporated six days before it signed the agreement with GSPC. On the day of the agreement, the company's total capital was only $64, he added.

"Gujarat government says that Geo Global provided it technical assistance, CAG has raised doubts about the company's technical competence. it appears that the sole purpose of this transaction was to gift oil fields worth Rs 10,000 crores and gift 10 per cent profits of GSPC to Geo Global," said Kejriwal.

With regards to the other firm, Jubilant Enpro Pvt Ltd, he said that the firm was owned by Shyam Sunder Bhatia, husband of Rajya Sabha MP Shobhana Bhartiya.

Responding to a question on where he got this information about Modi, Kejriwal revealed that it was given to him by suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt. Incidentally Bhatt’s wife is running against Modi in the Maninagar constituency in Ahmedabad.

This could be used by the BJP to discredit this latest ‘expose’ but Kejriwal took care to mention that they had verified all the information before going public.

Kejriwal after revealing the information said however that he did not understand why Sanjiv or his wife did not expose it. “I wonder why Gujarat Congress was not given the material”

"Isn't it strange that Modi grants a Rs 10,000 crore illegal benefit to someone so close to Congress? Isn't it strange that Congress keeps mum about Modi's scam for so many years?" he said.

Describing the Narendra Modi government as Adani's dukaan (Adani's shop), Arvind Kejriwal, the national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party, said that the Gujarat government has been extending favours to the Adani group for land projects.

Kejriwal alleged that in 2007, the Gujarat government manipulated bids to facilitate an agreement with Adani by which the government would be buying power from the latter.

In the process, Kejriwal said, the Modi government rejected the offer made by Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation to supply electricity at cheaper rates.

"Rather than accepting the GMDC's offer to supply electricity at cheaper rates, the Modi government decided to purchase power at much higher rates from the Adanis. Why did Modi do that?"asked Kejriwal during a press conference in Delhi.

Kejriwal went on to say that after bagging the deal with the government, Adani started blackmailing the government and demanded they be given coal in order to supply electrcity.

"Instead of reprimanding the Adanis and cancelling their contract, Modi personally intervened to make sure that the Adanis were given coal blocks. Despite this, Adanis unilaterally cancelled their contract for supplying power in 2009. So, in effect, Adanis walked away with coal blocks without supplying the electricity they promised," said Kejriwal.

Talking about the land deals in Gujarat, AAP alleged that the Modi government has given around 5.67 crore square meters of land to the Adanis in Kutch, at throw-away prices for the purpose of building an SEZ.

While the market rate of land was between Rs 200 and Rs 315 per square metre for industrial use and Rs 1000 to Rs 1575 square metre for commercial use, Adanis were given land at less than Rs 10 per square metre. "It translates into an illegal benefit to Adanis to the tune of Rs 1600 crores," said Kejriwal.