A day after former Indian captain and current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly met the West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, speculations have been rife in political circles about him joining the BJP.
While speaking to the media, Ganguly gave a cryptic answer when quizzed about his political ambitions. On being asked whether he or his family members would join the saffron party, the former Indian captain replied, “If the Governor wants to meet you, you have to meet him. So let us keep it like that.” It must be mentioned that Ganguly joined Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah in unveiling a statue of late Arun Jaitley at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla stadium on the occasion of the former finance minister’s birth anniversary today.
https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1343463914848153602?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwWest Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh speaks about Sourav Ganguly
While speaking to the media over rumours of Sourav Ganguly joining the saffron party, West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said, “I have nothing to know about what he would do or he wouldn’t. He is a respectable man and has been the captain (of the Indian cricket team).”
He asked, “Why do we have these rumours going around after Sourav Ganguly met the Governor?” Dilip Ghosh added that politics in Bengal is in tatters and therefore ‘good people’ are always ‘welcome’ in the BJP. “Successful people such as Sourav Ganguly must join politics”, he further hinted.
Sourav Ganguly and his political ambitions
Sourav Ganguly himself is known to share a cordial relationship with Amit Shah and his son Jay Shah, who is the Secretary of BCCI. Dona Ganguly, the cricketer’s wife who is a well-known classical dancer, was seen performing at BJP Mahila Morcha’s Durga Puja in Kolkata.
Due to the political nature of the BCCI appointment, and the cordial relationship between Ganguly and senior leaders of the party, there are speculations that the popular former cricketer may BJP ahead of the 2021 Assembly Elections in West Bengal.
But it has also been reported that Sourav Ganguly has conveyed his disinterest in joining politics to the BJP. Home Minister Amit Shah, on the other hand, has been remarkably nonchalant about the prospects of him joining the party. Last year, he denied that the party had made any attempts to recruit the cricketer but admitted that ‘it would be good’ if he joined.