With speculations regarding former Team India captain Sourav Ganguly’s plans to join the BJP running high, the southpaw batsman on Thursday refused to comment on it saying he was not aware of any such talks. He had earlier said that he was not interested in politics as he did not want to contest elections.
When asked to comment on industrialist Harsh Goenka’s Twitter comments that soon Bengal could see its Dada (Ganguly) taking on its Didi (read Mamata Banerjee) on BJP ticket the stylish lefthander of the yesteryear said he was not aware of any such comments insisting however Prime Minister Narendra Modi was making excellent efforts to take India ahead. Other reports quoted Ganguly saying elsewhere that he was not joining any political party though he had been contacted by some of them.
The speculations regarding Ganguly’s joining the saffron outfit was also dismissed by BJP central observer for Bengal Siddharth Nath Singh who said “there is no truth in the tweet of an industrialist stating that Sourav is joining. However we have great respect for former captain of Indian cricket team. Few of our leaders also enjoy very good relationship with him” the BJP MP said.
Sourav was offered a BJP membership and also a ticket to contest the 2014 general elections which he had politely turned down that he was not interested in contesting elections. One of the best captains India had ever produced Ganguly had a large fan-following in Bengal and throughout the country.
The cricket who was recently in Australia had said from there that he would definitely join the Prime Minister’s Clean India campaign adding he would speak to the appropriate people to know the modalities of Swacchh Bharat campaign. Earlier a number of celebrities from Bengal had joined the BJP. The long list of big names includes singer Kumar Shanu, actress Rupa Ganguli and others.
Meanwhile, BJP was planning to hold at least 7 meetings in Bengal to be addressed by the Prime Minister ahead of next year’s Assembly elections. Apart from this the outfit would also host 60 meetings to be addressed by party president Amit Shah.