Kolkata: Former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly has dismissed media reports of him joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Speaking to Gulf News, Ganguly said, “BJP did ask me to join the party. But I have declined the offer. I will remain focused in the development of the game in the state.”
This is not the first time Ganguly has refused the offer to join politics. Last year, before the general elections in May, the cricketer was offered a ticket to contest the poll by the BJP and the Trinamool Congress, TMC, but he declined both offers.
BJP National Secretary Siddharth Nath Singh also said there is no truth in the reports. “There is no truth in the statement of an industrialist stating that Sourav Ganguly is joining our party. We have great respect and regard for former captain of Indian cricket team. Few of our leaders also enjoy a very good relationship with him,” Singh said.
Getting Ganguly join BJP would have certainly given the state unit much required fillip ahead of the 2016 elections, considering the popularity he still enjoys with the youth. Recently, a TMC minister Manjul Krishna Thakur has defected from the TMC and there is speculation that former railways minister Dinesh Trivedi may switch over along with few minister of the state government.
Ganguly, has been known for his closeness with the Left parties, mostly with former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharyya and has even supported his attempt to boost industrialisation. However, he has also been accused of receiving favours from the Left Front government in the state in the form of land allocation for a school in 2000. The Supreme Court had quashed the allotment of around 45,360 sqft of land for a school in 2011.
He has a good relationship with the ruling TMC and received a lifetime achievement award in 2013. He was allocated two acres of land for his school and cricket project, which Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated. “He [Ganguly] is too smart to join any political party, especially, when the state is in such a political flux. He has earned enough as a cricketer, he will never put his energies into something that may backfire tomorrow,” said a former cricketer who was his teammate.
