Setting the stage for a stormy board meeting of the Reliance group's flagship company, Vice Chairman and Managing Director Anil Ambani on Wednesday termed his fight as Reliance Eleven versus Anil and alleged that several people wanted him to be out of the company.
Minutes before the board meeting at the RIL headquarters at Makers Chambers in Mumbai, Anil told reporters: "I have put it on record. The board has chosen to ignore all my communications," when asked about his letter stating that elder brother Mukesh's aide Anand Jain wanted him to be out of the flagship company's board.
"I still continue to serve on the company contrary to the designs of several people who do not want me in the company," Anil said.
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On the issue of RIL board's corporate governance committee giving a clean chit to Mukesh, the younger sibling, engaged in a bitter battle over ownership of Reliance empire, said: "This is a very different type of cricket game. You got Reliance Eleven Vs Anil Ambani. . . what do you expect?"
Taking a wide range of questions including on the controversy over his resignation from IPCL, Anil said: "Clearly I am in minority as far as rewarding shareholders, transparency and governance issues are concerned."
Asked if there was a conspiracy to remove him from RIL, he said: "I have put this on record to the board of directors and the board of directors have chosen to ignore all my comments and suggestions."
On the reported decision of the IPCL board, from which he had resigned on January 3, at its meeting on Tuesday that Anil should reconsider his decision, he said: "It is 11.20 a.m. As of now I have no communication on my offer to resign from IPCL board. I do not know what IPCL board is doing. I do not know whether they have communicated to stock exchanges."
On further questioning, Anil, whose name was quietly deleted from the list of directors on IPCL's official Web site recently triggering a controversy, said he had not heard from the IPCL board so where was the question of 'reconsidering' resignation.
IPCL informed the stock exchanges after the January 20 board meeting that it had decided to ask Anil Ambani to reconsider the decision but in a subsequent communication last week said that he ceased to be a director on the company's board.
On what he would do at the board meeting, Anil said that he was still the vice chairman and managing director. "I was appointed by the body of shareholders and I owe my ultimate responsibility to three million shareholders of the company."
Vouching by legacy of his father and Reliance founder late Dhirubhai Ambani, the younger brother said: "I have maintained in the past that the company is professionally run. . . we have great talent in the company. We have very strong system and foundation."
He said that it was the time for rewarding the shareholders who stood by the company for many years.