‘She could be very near me’: After Shah go to to his residence, Sourav talks of his relation with Mamata

By PTI

KOLKATA: A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah paid a go to to his residence and had dinner together with his household, which grabbed consideration, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly Saturday spoke of his shut relation with Chief Minister, who is understood to be a strident critic of the BJP.

Ganguly, former Indian cricket group captain, additionally showered reward on minister and metropolis mayor Firhad Hakim describing him as an individual who may be approached by anybody at any time of the day.

“Our honourable Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is a person very close to me. I had approached her to help up this institute,” he mentioned on the inauguration programme of a non-public hospital right here.

The former southpaw mentioned, “I am also very close to Firhad Hakim. He has been seeing me since I was in Class 1. He has been our family friend. All who approach him get help. I too have called him several times,” Ganguly mentioned.

Shah’s go to to Ganguly’s residence on Friday had fuelled hypothesis that the previous cricketer would be a part of politics quickly.

The dinner was reported to be a detailed household affair the place moreover Ganguly and his spouse danseuse Dona Ganguly, the cricketer’s elder brother Snehasish Ganguly and different members of the family have been hosts.

Shah was accompanied by BJP idealogue, Swapan Dasgupta, the get together’s state president Sukanta Majumdar and the Leader of Opposition in West Bengal meeting, Suvendu Adhikari.

Aware of the conjectures, Ganguly had mentioned on Friday, “Many speculations are rife, but I have known him (Shah) since 2008. While playing, I used to meet him. There’s nothing more than that”.

He had additionally identified he had labored with Shah’s son, Jay Amitbhai Shah, within the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Jay Shah is the BCCI secretary.

Dona Ganguly had mentioned there was no dialogue on politics throughout Shah’s go to to the Ganguly residence.

“It is human to speculate. But if there is any news, everyone will know.”

She had additionally mentioned, “I don’t know whether Sourav will enter politics or not. But he will do well if he joins politics. I believe he will do good work for the people”.

Ganguly had visited the state secretariat on April 28 and met Banerjee relating to allocation of land to the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), of which he’s the president, to construct a stadium.

Political analyst Biswajit Chakraborty described Ganguly as a “businessman” who’s attempting to keep up good phrases with the central and state governments in order that his enterprise runs easily.

“Ganguly is doing this for his own benefit. He knows that he has to keep both the Centre and Mamata Banerjee happy so that his business keeps running. He has been balancing quite nicely,” Chakraborty informed PTI.

Another analyst known as Ganguly a “perfect gentleman” who was doing a “balancing act”.

“Ganguly is an immensely intelligent man. I guess Shah had come to his residence yesterday to evaluate how much Ganguly is ready to plunge into politics. And today, he (Ganguly) spoke about his closeness to the CM. Though I do not see any significance in it, I think he is doing it because he has to survive both nationally as well as in the state,” he added.