Post Varun offer,Cong and Left try to hook Ganguly for LS polls

While the BJP has already offered him a seat from the state,West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Pradip Bhattacharya Sunday visited his house at Behala

Written by: Sabyasachi Bandopdhyay

3 min readKolkataDec 16, 2013 01:05 AM IST First published on: Dec 16, 2013 at 01:05 AM IST

Political parties are vying with each other to rope in former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly into their fold and field him in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

While the BJP has already offered him a seat from the state,West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Pradip Bhattacharya Sunday visited his house at Behala and is learnt to have offered him party candidature.

Ganguly told The Indian Express that he had received an offer from the BJP but had not yet made up his mind. He said Bhattacharya met him and discussed “some personal issues”.

“I have already said I have not yet made up my mind on the offer from the BJP. And so far as Pradipda’s visit to my house is concerned,I can tell you he is a family friend who came to my house on several occasions earlier also. It was just a personal call,’’ Ganguly said.

Bhattacharya,who spent about 40 minutes at Ganguly’s house,too called it a courtesy call. “It is Sourav who will decide what he would do. Mine was just a courtesy call,’’ Bhattacharya told reporters.

Ganguly is learnt to have called a prominent leader of the CPM Saturday and asked him that Bhattacharya was willing to come to his place and sought an advice. The Left leader is reported to have advised him that “he should treat Bhattacharya to a cup of tea”.

Meanwhile,CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury,who is in Agartala to attend the CPM central committee meeting,said,“As far as I know him,Sourav is inclined toward the Left and I believe if he ever joins politics he will join the Left.”

It was about three months back when BJP general secretary Varun Gandhi,who is also in charge of party’s West Bengal unit,met Ganguly in Delhi and asked him to contest from Krishnanagar in Nadia district.

The seat was earlier held by former Union minister in NDA regime and senior BJP leader Satyabrata Mukherjee.

Ganguly immediately informed two senior CPM leaders —- former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and former minister Ashok Bhattacharya —- about the offer.

“We told him,you will have to take the decision. We will not give you any offer,” Ashok Bhattacharya,who is a close family friend of Ganguly,told Indian Express from Siliguri.

The former India captain,while working as TV commentator for international cricket matches,has also earned laurels as an anchor for a popular Quiz show on a Bengali channel.