"No Barter With Amit Shah": Sourav Ganguly Denies Political Connection With BJP

When Sourav Ganguly took office as BCCI president, Jay Shah, son of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, was appointed as the secretary of the cricket board and Arun Dhumal, younger brother of Minister of State for Finance and former BCCI president Anurag Thakur, took office as the treasurer. All the members were elected unopposed as a result there was no election held.

Amid all this, murmurs of Sourav Ganguly holding a connection with the ruling party, began to spread like a wildfire. However, Ganguly has denied these claims, saying Indian cricket have always had a strong link with political forces.

“Every BCCI election in the past 40 years have had people from politics—Madhavrao Scindia, Sharad Pawar, Raj­eev Shukla were part of Indian cricket before I became a cri­­­cket administrator…. For me it’s about candidates fit to run the BCCI,” Sourav Ganguly said in an interview to Outlook.

Sourav Ganguly: There was no barter with Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had welcomed Sourav Ganguly to BJP. It fuelled the rumours that the former India captain holds a connection with BJP. However, rubbishing all the claims, Ganguly said that there was no barter with Amit Shah. He also cited the example of Anurag Thakur and said, we supported him when he became the president.

“I completely understand. But there wasn’t any barter (with Amit Shah), it never existed. When Anurag Thakur became president, we supported him. When Shashank Manohar bec­ame president, Dalmiya backed him. It’s the same with Mr Scindia and Mr Pawar. Where is the question of joining the BJP?,” Ganguly said.

Ganguly has taken some big decisions since taking office as the board president. He pioneered the first day-night Test in India which was a big success.