‘Eternally grateful to Mamata Banerjee’: Yusuf Pathan fielded on Adhir Chowdhury turf
Telegraph | 11 March 2024
As a cricketer, Yusuf Pathan was known for hitting big sixes. He will now be trying his luck on a different pitch, against a seasoned opponent.
The former India cricketer will be Trinamul candidate from Behrampore, fief of Bengal Congress president Adhir Chowdhury, who has been MP from the seat for five straight terms.
“The candidate from Behrampore is a star cricketer and played for Team India for a long period: Yusuf Pathan,” Trinamul Number Two Abhishek Banerjee announced amid huge applause at the Brigade Parade Grounds on Sunday.
Two hours later, the 41-year-old cricketer from Gujarat — a member of the victorious Indian teams of the T20 World Cup (2007) and the 50-over World Cup (2011) — expressed his gratitude on his X handle.
“I’m eternally grateful to Smt. @MamataOfficial for welcoming me into
the TMC family and trusting me with the responsibility to become people’s voice
in the Parliament,” Pathan wrote.
The 42 Trinamul candidates include 12 women, 10 sitting MLAs and one
Rajya Sabha MP. The party has denied six sitting MPs — including actresses
Nusrat Jahan (Basirhat) and Mimi Chakraborty (Jadavpur) — while fielding 16 sitting MPs and 11 new faces.
Mahua Moitra and Shatrughan Sinha — whose names had earlier been
announced by Mamata Banerjee — will contest from their old constituencies of
Krishnanagar and Asansol.
A Trinamul source said Pathan — who had played a key role in the Kolkata
Knight Riders’ IPL victory of 2014 — was probably the best pick against Adhir,
a staunch Mamata critic whom the ruling party is desperate to defeat on his
home turf.
“A famous cricketer and a Muslim candidate from Behrampore, where 52 per
cent voters are from the minority community, will pose a formidable challenge
to the so-called Congress strongman of Murshidabad,” a Trinamul leader said.
Adhir hit back quickly, saying Trinamul had nominated Pathan to help the
BJP.
“The political equation is to divide the Muslim votes in Behrampore and
to ask Hindus to vote for the BJP. Mamata Banerjee has no problem getting the
BJP to win in a bid to defeat Adhir Chowdhury,” he said at a news conference in
Behrampore.
“If Mamata Banerjee had to honour Yusuf Pathan, why was he not sent to
the Rajya Sabha?”
Trinamul has also fielded Kirti
Azad, another former cricketer and a member of the 1983 World Cup-winning team.
Azad will contest from the Burdwan-Durgapur seat, which the BJP’s Surinderjeet
Singh Ahluwalia won in 2019.
Actor Rachana Banerjee, anchor of the popular Bengali television
show Didi No. 1 in
which Mamata recently appeared — has been fielded from
Hooghly against the BJP’s Locket Chatterjee.
Trinamul sources said Rachana was picked because of her huge fan
base. The crowd erupted when Abhishek announced her name.
Some within Trinamul raised questions about some of the picks.
“Party IT cell chief Debangshu Bhattacharya has been fielded from Tamluk. The party should
have chosen a stronger candidate as the former judge, Abhijit Gangopadhyay, is
likely to contest from the seat.
Basirhat, under which Sandeshkhali falls, could have done with a better choice
than Hazi Nurul Islam,” a party source said.
The selection of Partha Bhowmick for Barrackpore – which Trinamul lost
in 2019 to the BJP’s Arjun Singh, who later joined Trinamul — also caused some
surprise.
Some of the new faces drew appreciation. Among them are Sharmila Sarkar,
associate professor of psychiatry at Calcutta Medical College, who will contest
from Burdwan East, and Shahnawaz Ali Raihan, a PhD scholar at Oxford University
who has been fielded from
Malda South.