Jayalalitha met Adani, signed power pact with them directly, says DMK

Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha signed an agreement with the Adani Group to buy one unit of electricity at ₹7.05, the ruling DMK party said on Friday (November 22), amid serious charges of bribery against Gautam Adani by the US.

"Let us not forget that it was Jayalalithaa … who met Adani and entered into an agreement for 25 years to purchase one unit of electricity for ₹7.05,” DMK spokesperson Saravana Annadurai said.

“So, the corruption started when Jayalalithaa signed a power agreement with the Adani Group directly,” he added.

Also read: Can Adani get extradited to US? What an attorney says? 

A US court has been told that the Adani Group was part of an elaborate scheme to pay bribes worth ₹265 million (₹2029 crores) to Indian government officials in various states to bag favourable terms for solar power contracts between July 2021 and February 2022.

The US indictment stated that the Indian states which entered into pacts to purchase solar power included Tamil Nadu (TN), Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jammu and Kashmir.

No agreement with Adani Group: Balaji

Meanwhile, TN electricity minister Senthil Balaji on Thursday (November 21) has clarified that the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) had never entered into any power purchase or sale agreement with the Adani Group.

Also read: Adani's indictment in US triggers political upheaval in Delhi

Further, he added that for the past three years there had been 'no commercial relationship' between the DMK government’s TNEB and the Adani Group. The state government entered into a power agreement with the Solar Energy Corp of India Ltd (SECI), a central government entity, to purchase power at a 'cheap price'.

Talking to reporters in his home town Karur in western TN, he added that the contract between the TN government and the SECI was for the procurement of 1,500 MW power at a low cost of ₹2.61 per unit.

According to the minister, the high rate that was fixed during the previous AIADMK-led state government was ₹7.

"Our pact was only with SECI, which purchased solar power from private companies like the Adani group and sold it to us. We don’t have any direct connection with the Adani group,” asserted Balaji.

Also read: LIVE | Adani offered ex-Andhra CM Jagan $200 billion bribe: US panel

According to the DMK spokesperson Annadurai, "It is the SECI which is mandated by the BJP government, creation of the BJP government which has acted as a broker for the Adani group. The officials of the SECI should be investigated and then only will we come to know the truth."