Speaking to reporters after holding his first election rally in the state, Pathan said, “I have a big team here. This is completely a different pitch but the asking rate is the same. The aim of my team will be the same, which is to score runs faster and win the match.”
“I don’t think I am an outsider here. Do you think that I am an outsider? The biggest example is that our Prime Minister Narendra Modi is from Gujarat but he contests elections from Varanasi. So what is the problem if I contest from here?” he said.
Pathan said his job would be to score runs faster and win the match for the Trinamool Congress.
Pathan has hit the campaign trail amid huge fanfare when the Congress and the BJP are yet to announce their candidates for the Baharampur seat. In all likelihood, he will take on Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, five-time MP and the Congress’s leader in the Lok Sabha.
Though a debutant in electoral politics, the former cricketer appeared unfazed by the daunting task ahead. “It is your love and commitment to work which has brought me here. I can contest from anywhere in the country but this is my home (West Bengal) and I have come here to stay. It is your love which will see me through this (election),” said Pathan, also a former player of the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Pathan also held a public meeting and a padyatra in Murshidabad district, in which Baharampur falls, along with TMC Murshidabad candidate Abu Taher Khan, Bharatpur MLA Humayun Kabir and other leaders of the ruling party.
Kabir, who had expressed disappointment after the party nominated Pathan for the Baharampur seat, made a U-turn on Thursday. “I had a discussion with TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and I have accepted the party’s decision,” he said.
For his part, Congress MP Chowdhury said on Wednesday that he would again contest the poll from Baharampur, a seat he has held since 1999, and that a formal announcement was just a matter of time.
“I know I have to deal with a couple of bouncers but I know how to play them. I have also kept my helmet ready,” Chowdhury said, referring to Pathan’s candidature.