Asia’s most powerful billionaires are getting drawn into the world’s biggest election

By Diksha Madhok, CNN

New Delhi (CNN) — Two of the planet’s richest businessmen are becoming embroiled in India’s increasingly divisive election campaign.

The world’s most populous nation is in the midst of a mammoth election in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is widely expected to secure a rare third consecutive term.

Modi is running on his economic record over the past 10 years, a period of robust growth for India, as well as for its two most famous billionaires: Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani. Likened to the industrialists who helped build America’s “Gilded Age,” both men are considered vocal champions of Modi and their perceived closeness has been the subject of intense criticism by rival politicians.

But at an election rally on Wednesday, Modi appeared to accuse his primary political opponent of accepting money from Ambani, chairman of India’s most valuable private company Reliance Industries, and Gautam Adani, the founder of ports-to-energy conglomerate the Adani Group.

“Why has Shahzade Ji stopped talking of Ambani and Adani in this election all of sudden? People are smelling a secret deal,” Modi said on X, where he posted a video of his speech. Shahzade, or prince, is a widely understood reference to Rahul Gandhi, the longtime face of main opposition party Indian National Congress.

“How much money have you taken from Ambani and Adani?” he said at the rally.

Gandhi, the scion of a dynasty that has given India three prime ministers, has often asked tough questions about the relationship between Modi and the country’s leading tycoons.

“Are you scared, Modi” Gandhi said in a response on X on Wednesday. “This is the first time you have talked about Ambani and Adani in public.”

“I want to repeat to the country that the amount of money Modi has given to these businessmen, we are going to give the same amount to India’s poor,” he added, asking for an official investigation into the two conglomerates.

Reliance and the Adani Group did not respond to a CNN request for comment.

Opaque nature of funding

While each candidate has accused the other of receiving truckloads of money illegally from both businessmen, neither has provided any proof to back their claims.

Earlier this year, India’s Supreme Court made a major ruling concerning the often opaque nature of political funding. It declared that a system of anonymous donations introduced by the Modi government in 2017 was “unconstitutional.”

The electoral bonds system had allowed individuals or groups to buy bonds from the government-run State Bank of India and donate them anonymously to any political party.

Anti-corruption groups have long complained that the system meant a lack of transparency regarding donations to political parties — allowing corporations to donate large sums without disclosure.

While Modi’s speech about the billionaires made headlines in India, analysts do not expect his comments to trigger detailed scrutiny by local media or an official investigation.

“Given the close ties between legacy media and top businesses in India, there is no major desire to go after crony capitalism in the country,” said Abhinandan Sekhri, co-founder of Newslaundry, an independent news website that focuses on media.

Many of India’s leading media companies are owned by large conglomerates that invest in a vast array of industries, and they’re under pressure to stay friendly to the ruling party to ensure favorable policies for their other businesses, analysts have said.

Adani took over NDTV, an influential broadcaster, in 2022, while Ambani owns Network 18, which includes the CNN-News18 TV channel, a CNN affiliate.

Billionaire Raj

In the last decade, both Ambani and Adani have stunned the world with their success and influence.

Ambani, 67, is Asia’s richest man and controls an empire that has businesses ranging from oil and clean energy to telecom and media.

Much like Reliance, Adani’s colossal $200 billion conglomerate operates in key industries, including energy and logistics, which are considered indispensable to India’s economic growth. According to Bloomberg, the billionaire is currently the second richest person in Asia, but he briefly ousted Jeff Bezos as the world’s second-wealthiest person in 2022.

While investors have been cheering the duo’s ability to bet on sectors prioritized by Modi, critics have said their rise is fuelling crony capitalism in the world’s fastest growing economy.

Modi used Adani’s private aircraft while he was campaigning to become prime minister in 2014. Over the years, both the ruling party and the industrialist have denied any suggestion of favoritism.

In January 2023, the Adani group was rocked by an unprecedented crisis when an American short-seller Hindenburg Research accused it of engaging in fraud over decades.

Adani denounced Hindenburg’s report as “baseless” and “malicious.” But that failed to halt a stunning stock market meltdown that, at one point, wiped more than $100 billion off the value of its listed companies.

Political leaders from India’s main opposition party ferociously questioned Adani’s relationship with the prime minister, and some even said that they were punished for pursuing the issue.

Since then, Adani has made a remarkable comeback, with shares in some of his companies touching record highs.

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