Kolkata: In mid October, Dona Ganguly, a renowned classical dancer and wife of former India cricketer and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, received a call from a central BJP leader who requested her to grace their Durga Puja celebration with a performance at Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (EZCC) at Salt Lake in Bengal.
Dona and Sourav were in UAE to watch the IPL matches. She was informed over the phone that the event will be followed by an inaugural speech by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through a video conference on October 22.
A couple of days after the call, Dona flew back to Kolkata and performed at EZCC. She exchanged pleasantries with the BJP leaders and overall the celebration went quite well. The BJP believed that Dona may have discussed the matter with Sourav before flying back to Kolkata to perform at EZCC.
Sixty six days later on Sunday, Sourav took everyone by when he visited the Raj Bhawan to meet Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.
After one and a half hour-long meeting, Sourav came out and told the media: Yes, I met the hon’ble governor. It was a courtesy call. Actually, he never visited Eden Gardens so I have decided to take him to the Eden Gardens next week.”
After a brief media interaction, Sourav left the Raj Bhawan, again with a subtle smile, saying, “Please, don’t speculate anything”.
Minutes later, his BMW disappeared in the city traffic leaving speculations behind.
However, political experts believe that the one and half hours long meeting with the governor cannot be only about visiting the Eden Gardens but certainly it was beyond a ‘courtesy call’.
Although it’s a bit early to speculate or comment on his visit to Raj Bhawan, if we look back in 2019 October, Sourav had hit the headlines after (in a surprise move) he was made the chief of the powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India or BCCI after his brief meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Back then too, after meeting Shah he had maintained that it was a “courtesy call”.
No one can specifically claim that Sourav has an allegiance with a particular political party in India as he has always maintained a neutral stand in public.
He has always maintained that he is not interested in politics and will not campaign for any political party in 2021 assembly polls and that he is very happy with his role in the cricket administration.
But in future if he decides to play an active role in politics, TMC and BJP insiders are of the opinion that he will not contest the upcoming Assembly polls in 2021.
His entry in politics will be through backdoor – if at all he decides to play his political innings.
But what will be his pick in terms of political parties?
But going back to Dona Ganguly, is BJP willing to make her their candidate in the upcoming assembly poll in Bengal? Is Dona at all interested in politics? Will she agree? Will Sourav be interested in supporting anyone in his family members to contest the polls?
We have to wait for a couple of weeks to witness whether ‘Dada’ will go for his graceful ‘off drive’ or will continue to struggle with his short pulls.
Speaking to News18, State BJP president, Dilip Ghosh said, “We always want people like Sourav Ganguly to join our party. Our doors are always open. In the past too, many celebrities joined our party and in the coming days more will come. This sends a positive message to the people.”
Asked if they want to see Dona in the BJP, he said, “Again, I am saying that our doors are open for all. We want well known people in BJP. But who will contest and who will not will be decided by the higher party leaders.”
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