Kolkata: Electoral fate of the two World Cup winning cricketers will be decided in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections in Bengal on May 13. With the Trinamool Congress (TMC) creating a slogan of “Khela Hobe”, both the former cricketers are ready to take their political battle on a different turf.
The 65-year-old Kirti Azad, who was part of the 1983 World Cup winning team, is contesting from Burdwan-Durgapur Lok Sabha Constituency while 41-year-old Yusuf Pathan, a member of the Indian cricket team that won the World Cup in 2011 is fighting the electoral battle from Berhampore seat in Murshidabad. Both of them are contesting the polls on the Trinamool Congress ticket. Both of them are pitted against political heavyweights. Azad is contesting against BJP’s heavyweight candidate Dilip Ghosh while Pathan is contesting against five time Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is defending the Baharampur seat.
Yusuf Pathan has made his political debut. People were surprised when Trinamool Congress declared Pathan’s name as its candidate from the mega rally at the Brigade parade ground. Contesting from a Muslim-dominated area, Pathan during his campaign praised the schemes of the Trinamool Congress government particularly the honorariums to Imams and Muezzins. He also expressed his gratitude to the Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee as he was given a chance to work for the people.
“The initiative by the Mamata Banerjee government giving honorarium to Imams and Muezzins is very praiseworthy. I remember my father [who served as Imam] had a salary of Rs 3,000 and he took care of us,” Pathan had said. Pathan has promised a new sports complex at Berhampore where the youth can be trained while Kirti Azad had said that he would address the issue of the sports complex by Sports Authority of India being occupied by alleged drug addicts.
Azad who has been both an MP and MLA from the BJP, before turning to Congress and now the Trinamool Congress during his campaign raised the issue of attempts of eviction of locals from Durgapur Steel Plant area. “I would die but not let you be evicted from your land. If Dilip Ghosh has the courage he should come and say that people will not be evicted from the land,” Azad had said.
BJP’s S S Ahluwalia in 2019 won from Burdwan-Durgapur by a narrow margin of less than 3,000 while Adhir Chowdhury had won the Baharampur seat in 2019 with a margin of about 80,000 voters. Ahluwalia is now contesting from Asansol.