Lok Sabha elections 2014: How Mukesh Ambani is losing influence with Congress

NEW DELHI: Last few weeks have been extraordinary for Reliance Industries Limited, and its Chairman Mukesh Ambani. Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party has launched almost an allegation-a-day public campaign against RIL and its promoter.

Reliance has been unusually busy defending itself against AAP’s allegations of influence peddling and worse. Indeed, last Friday, the conglomerate issued a lengthy statement.

But, in some significant ways, RIL finding itself in the crosshairs of an election season political campaign is not the biggest story, unusual as it is given the largely RIL-free political rhetoric of the past two decades.

The real story is RIL and Mukesh Ambani losing influence — with Congress. India’s richest man and its oldest political party have drifted so far apart that those in the establishment who understand ferociously complex matters of political-business relationships are of the view Congress and RIL may not become friendly any time soon.

ET spoke to scores of leaders across the political spectrum for this story as well as to leaders in business. Given the ultra-sensitivity with which India’s establishment treats political-business relationships at the highest levels, almost no one was willing to speak on record.

ET sent a detailed questionnaire to RIL. But the company didn’t respond to the questions and didn’t otherwise participate in this story. ET’s many conversations on the Congress-Reliance Industries relationship made three things clear.

Also Read: Rahul-Mukesh and Modi-Mukesh: A relationship frays and a bond deepens

Fir” to business leaders is a contributory factor in RIL and Congress drifting apart.

‘NOTHING FROM AMBANI’

Corporate funding for elections is a subject that produces few clear facts. So, it’s especially remarkable that Motilal Vora should tell ET that during end-2013’s assembly elections, “Congress took no money from Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries or any entity connected to them”.

RIL’s complete non-participation in Congress’ funding efforts should come as a surprise to anyone even remotely familiar with the history of political funding. But for a few people in India’s political-business establishment, this was simply reaffirmation of something that started in 2009.

A senior Congress leader told ET: “Deterioration of the Congress-RIL relationship started in 2009…Mukesh, like most other industrialists, had miscalculated and thought BJP would come to power.” This leader said, “After the elections, RIL and Congress had sharply different takes on the nature of their relationship.”

Other political leaders told ET that Ambani was not the only industry captain who called the 2009 election wrong. Many other India Inc heavyweights had bet on BJP. But only RIL, this leader said, was perceived by Congress post-2009 as having “switched sides definitively”.