To the demand of AIADMK legislator SP Velumani to provide free IPL tickets for MLAs, Tamil Nadu Sports Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin in the Assembly told him to 'ask Jay Shah'.
On Tuesday, SP Velumani asked Udhayanidhi to provide free IPL tickets to Opposition MLAs and said that the MLAs were provided free match tickets when AIADMK was in power in TN.
Velumani claimed that the DMK government received 400 tickets for IPL matches but did not give a single ticket to the Opposition MLAs.
Responding to the claim in Assembly, Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development said, "The BCCI Secretary is Jai Shah, the son of your close friend Amit Shah... It's better that you talk to him."
The DMK leader added: "He (Jay Shah) does not listen to us... You better speak to him and get at least five tickets each for the MLAs."
Udhayanidhi also said that he got 150 tickets for sportspersons in Chepauk constituency by paying for them.
Udhayanidhi said, "The AIADMK leader here said that they had given IPL tickets to the MLAs for matches held at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium. But no matches were played at the stadium in the last four years. I wonder for whom did the party buy tickets."
Meanwhile, Paattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) MLA R Venkatesan on Tuesday created a controversy in the Assembly by demanding that Chennai Super Kings (CSK) should be banned since their team does not include anyone from Tamil Nadu.
Speaking at the Assembly, Venkatesan said, “There are no cricketers from Tamil Nadu in the CSK IPL team even though there are many talented players in the state. Without having a single Tamil player CSK is generating a profit by projecting CSK as the Tamil Nadu team. The Tamil Nadu Government should ban CSK for not including Tamil players in the team."