According to sources, Mahendra Singh Dhoni holds 50% stake in BJP leader Nitin Gadkari's food venture under Purti Group, adding to the discussion on conflict of interest in Cricket. Nitin Gadkari's food venture, named Purti Samosa Khaale Ltd is the largest samosa and vada pav producer in India with 70% of food is consumed by Gadkari himself and rest is supplied to Indian Cricketers during tournaments.
"Purti Samosa Khaale is yet to make commercial entry in Indian markets. Still based on volume, the company is the largest producer of samosa and vada pav India," said a source in direct knowledge of the entire incident.
He said "Contract to supply samosas to Indian players was a major breakthrough for Purti Samosa Khaale which wanted to enter in India's commercial markets. The group head Nitin Gadkari decided to brand its products."
The source also told that Mahendra Singh Dhoni holds 50% stake and a position of Director in the venture. The source confirmed that Gadkari is currently largest consumer of samosas but considering the high customer concentration risk, the company wants to diversify among other consumers of India.
"It wants to reduce Gadkari's share of 70% consumption of samosas to 50% and therefore it approached Dhoni for partnership," revealed the source.
The event is more significant as recently Purti Samosa Khaale signed contracts with 3 important players of Chennai Super Kings for promotion of its samosas in IPL. Players Ben Hilfenhaus, R Ashwin and Murli Vijay are going to promote flagship product "Chatni Samosa" of Purti Samosa Khaale.
"With this Mahendra Singh Dhoni can dominates the selection process of CSK," said the renowned sports journalist, requesting anonymity.
The India Satire's emails to Dhoni, Gadkari were unanswered, but BCCI Joint Secretary Anurag Thakur said "WTF yaar! In the early morning Economic Times called me asking my views on Dhoni's stake in some sports marketing company, now you guys are saying this. Boss, just spare me from this stupidity and go ask Dhoni. Ok we will look into entire episode after Srinivasan come back to his chair."
Few senior cricketers, however, condemn the event. "This is shocking. I don't understand how much the game will go down from here. No one will trust Cricket if people like Dhoni is involved in scandals," said ex-selector and Cricketer Kirti Azaad.
He said "I am amazed that how much this guy (Nitin Gadkari) is hungry of samosas and now he is shifting that habit to Indian cricketers. Unfortunately, that too is supported by senior cricketers like Dhoni."
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