A day after meeting West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, Indian cricket board chief Sourav Ganguly is likely to share the stage with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, at a programme in Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla stadium on Monday, fuelling speculations over his joining in politics.
Ganguly will be participating at an event where a statue of former Union Finance Minister and ex-Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) chairman, late Arun Jaitley, will be installed at Kotla.However, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president rejected any claim of his meeting with Shah, a key man in the country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).”There is an event at the DDCA. So I am going there,” Ganguly, the former Indian cricket captain, said in limited words.Ganguly visited the Governor House on Sunday evening and spent more than two hours in a meeting with Dhankhar, though the skipper called it a “courtesy visit”.
Ganguly’s visit gained significance in the context of West Bengal politics, which will witness a high-octane election fight in a few months from now, as the Opposition, mostly the ruling Trinamool Congress, calls the Governor House a “BJP party office”, accusing Dhankhar of politically-motivated.”I have never been to Governor House. He had called me so I had to come. Also the Governor wants to visit Eden Gardens. This is just a courtesy visit. Don’t speculate anything,” the former skipper told reporters.Though the BJP has emerged as a prime challenger to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool in recent years, the saffron party has not announced any of its face for the upcoming elections due to be held in 2021 summer.
During his last visit to the state, Shah had said the CM of the state, if BJP comes to power, will be from the soil.Reacting to the speculations over Ganguly’s joining in the saffron camp, BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said, “He will have to join the party and work hard. If people accept him, the party will give him everything.”
