January 07, 2025 11:05 pm (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Centre announces memorial for Pranab Mukherjee, his daughter thanks PM Modi for 'gracious gesture' | Delhi assembly elections on Feb 5, results on Feb 8 | Allu Arjun visits boy injured during Pushpa 2 stampede in Hyderabad | Donald Trump repeats his US-Canada merger offer after Justin Trudeau's resignation | India's HMPV cases surge to 7 after two cases reported from Nagpur | H-1B visa renewal will get simpler in 2025, Indians to benefit most as home country travel won't be required | As India detects 3 HMPV cases, #lockdown trends; Centre says no need to panic | Justin Trudeau announces resignation as Canada's PM amid rising pressure by partymates | 8 jawans, driver killed as Maoists blow up security vehicle in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur | Atul Subhash suicide: Karnataka High Court refuses to quash FIR against wife Nikita Singhania
SouravGanguly

Speculations over Sourav Ganguly's political beginnings end after he praises Mamata Banerjee the next day

| @indiablooms | May 08, 2022, at 03:51 pm

Kolkata: Former cricket captain and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has spoken about his close relations with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee a day after BJP leader and Home Minister Amit Shah paid a visit to his residence and had dinner with his family.

Amit Shah's visit to Sourav Ganguly's residence had triggered speculations over his closeness with the BJP and that he may join politics soon, but his comments the next day indicated otherwise.

"Our honourable Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is a person very close to me. I had approached her to help up this institute," he said at the inauguration programme of a private hospital here, reported NDTV.

Ganguly then went on to praise Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim.

"I am also very close to Firhad Hakim. He has been seeing me since I was in Class 1. He has been our family friend. All who approach him get help. I too have called him several times," Ganguly said.

The Home Minister's dinner was a close family affair where apart from Ganguly and his wife famous Odissi dancer Dona Ganguly, his elder brother Snehashish Ganguly and other family members also played hosts.

The dinner was also attended by BJP idealogue, Swapan Dasgupta, the party's state president Sukanta Majumdar and the Leader of Opposition in West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari.

Ganguly said he has known Shah since 2008 and there is nothing more than that.

"Many speculations are rife... but I have known him (Shah) since 2008. While playing, I used to meet him. There's nothing more than that".

Ganguly had visited the state secretariat on April 28 and had a meeting with Mamata Banerjee over the allocation of land to the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), of which he is the president, to build a stadium.

Ganguly's wife Dona was quoted as saying in the media that there was no discussion over politics during the dinner. She said that if Ganguly joined politics, he would do well and work for the people but she wasn't aware if he would join politics or not.
 

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.