Kolkata: Former Indian cricketer Yusuf Pathan joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and will contest the Lok Sabha polls from the Berhampore seat in Murshidabad district. TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee announced Pathan’s candidature Sunday amid huge cheer — hoping to wrest the seat from the Congress, which has held it since 1999 under MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
The TMC has never won this seat since its inception and now looks to turn that around with “star power”. The party has carefully selected its candidates to challenge the BJP in West Bengal, which has the third-highest number of MPs in the Lower House.
According to TMC sources, the party approached Pathan “very recently” to offer him a ticket, as it was looking for a “minority face” for Berhampore, where 52 percent of the voters are minorities.
Pathan, a former Kolkata Knight Riders player who wore the purple jersey for seven years, therefore became the top leadership’s choice.
Speaking to the media persons in Kolkata, Pathan said, “I have been given this opportunity by the TMC to be their voice and help them and I decided to take it up in a very short time. As representatives of the people, it is our duty to uplift the poor and deprived.”
Pathan, who hails from Gujarat, was not the only surprise in the list of 42 candidates announced by the TMC.
Another former cricketer, Kirti Azad, was also fielded by the TMC from the Burdwan-Durgapur Lok Sabha constituency, but his name was already doing the rounds after he shared a stage with Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata last month. Azad had formally joined the TMC in November 2021.
The party supporters cheered loudly when Pathan’s name was announced at the public rally, showing his popularity. Pathan is the third cricketer from the 2011 World Cup-winning team to enter politics, after Gautam Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh.
According to political analyst Jayanta Ghoshal, Pathan added the star power to the TMC’s candidate list.
“If you see the entire list, there are sitting MLAs, sitting MPs, candidates who have been given tickets before. A few were seen fighting Vidhan Sabha polls and a few have fought 2019 polls, but when it comes to star power, that was Yusuf Pathan — the new and popular face for the TMC,” Ghoshal told ThePrint.
He added that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is seen picking celebrities to garner mass support, but more importantly, she has picked Pathan against Chowdhury to breach that seat “to prove a point to Congress politically”.
Cricketer and TMC MLA Manoj Tiwary told ThePrint: “Yusuf Pathan is a very good friend and I am very happy he has joined the TMC. We share so much in common that I made him comfortable and shared some advice as this was the first time for him. We had lunch together after his name was announced.”
He added: “I found out from him today that Yusuf bhai never took his daily allowance while on tours because he would give it to the groundsmen. This side of his is unknown, he wants to work for the party and this will be a big boost for the TMC. People of Bengal have seen him play for KKR too.”
Pathan and his younger brother Irfan Pathan have both played cricket for India. Their father Mehmood Pathan recalled in a television interview how he had enrolled the brothers in a cricket academy for Rs 20 fee every month and would drop them on his cycle before his duty.
The Baroda-based cricketer, Yusuf Pathan has played for India in 57 ODIs, and was part of the 2007 T20 World Cup team and then the 2011 World Cup-winning team.
But what adds to the Bengal link is that he was part of the KKR IPL franchise that lifted the IPL trophies in 2012 and 2014. Both Yusuf and Irfan then went on to play for the Rajasthan Royals.
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Mamata vs Adhir
Mamata and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s bitter rivalry reached a new low when the Congress and the TMC failed to finalise the seat-sharing arrangement for Bengal.
As Mamata Banerjee decided to fight solo back in January, the Congress and Left continued to sit together in West Bengal. While the TMC blamed Chowdhury for the deadlock, he on the other hand was seen criticising the TMC over state affairs.
While no formal seat sharing numbers or candidates from West Bengal have been announced either by Left or Congress, the Berhampore seat is likely to witness a high voltage political fight between the TMC and Congress.
Trinamool sources told ThePrint, the Berhampore seat was part of talks between the Congress and the TMC before the deal collapsed, as the TMC was not willing to give more than three seats to the Congress, which had demanded around 10 seats.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)