Now and then we get the news of Sourav Ganguly and his great and long standing friendship with the Bengal Chief Buddhadev Bhattacharya, which makes us wonder if, like other cricketers before him, he is about to take the plunge into politics. What is Sourav’s political connect and is he going to make the transition? We do a special report.  

It is Ganguly’s tremendous personal charisma, his unparalleled and undying popularity in his home state, his unarguable leadership skills and the fact that he is one of Indian cricket’s most successful captains which commands a steadfast loyalty among the citizenry and which that makes him very good candidate for Indian politics. Many quarters of Indian politics, starved as they are for able, young leaders that the youth can look up to are reportedly wooing Ganguly.

He is socially aware and active, and is seen to have a political conscience. Further he has the added advantage of being extremely articulate and media savvy, with a long history of dealing with the media. He is known to have assisted with and leant his voice to several causes that he believes in or which his political friends have requested a hand with. Ashok Bhattacharya, West Bengal Urban Development Minister who is also a close to Ganguly was quoted in the news as saying, "Sourav is extremely aware of what's happening around him and has always supported welfare projects which the state has undertaken. He is universally accepted, enjoys massive public support and understands the nuances of state politics."

All true enough, but is Ganguly interested?

According to Dona Ganguly, danseuse wife of the iconic cricketer, "The West Bengal government definitely wants that he (Sourav) should step into politics and when I was in Lucknow, some minister who was there said that he should come and fight from UP. Such offers keep coming but Sourav has not yet decided.” At least one representative of the Samajwadi party has said that they would consider themselves “more than lucky” if Ganguly were to consider such an offer.

The former Indian skipper however was quick to refute these rumours, saying, that he has no plans immediate or future to take part in politics since he is not good enough to do so in his own words. Whatever his personal misgivings, Ganguly do seem to be an ideal political candidate, and should he decide to take the plunge, he will likely be inundated with offers from across the political firmament!

Comments

Add New RSS

3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

Newer news items:

Older news items: