- Sourav Ganguly denied acting as Trinamool intermediary for Mamata Banerjee.
- Reports claimed Ganguly asked Pathan to vacate Baharampur Lok Sabha seat.
- Ganguly asserted he never conveyed any such message.
Former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly on Saturday rejected reports claiming that he had acted as an intermediary for the Trinamool Congress to persuade Baharampur MP Yusuf Pathan to vacate his Lok Sabha seat for former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
In a signed statement dated June 6 and addressed to “all the media houses”, Ganguly described the allegations against him as being made “in reckless disregard of the truth”.
The statement referred to a front-page report published by Anandabazar Patrika on June 4 regarding Mamata Banerjee’s possible return to electoral politics through a by-election.
‘I Never Conveyed Any Message’: Ganguly
The report had claimed that Ganguly, who has repeatedly declined offers to enter politics, was approached to convey Mamata Banerjee’s message to Yusuf Pathan asking him to resign from the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat.
Responding to the report, Ganguly said, “I was never requested/asked by Ms Mamata Banerjee to convey any message from her to Mr Yusuf Pathan, whether to step down from his parliamentary seat, as alleged or otherwise or at all.”
“I never approached or contacted Mr Yusuf Pathan with any such or other request/message. As such, the question of Mr Yusuf Pathan responding in the manner as alleged in the article does not and cannot arise,” he added.
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Ganguly further asserted that he had “never been involved in political matters at any stage with any one concerned”.
He also urged media organisations “not to fall prey to rumours and speculations without verifying the correctness of the facts printed and published”.
Neither Yusuf Pathan nor the Trinamool Congress leadership has issued any official response regarding the report.
Yusuf Pathan’s Electoral Victory
Yusuf Pathan, a member of India’s 2011 World Cup-winning squad, won the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 general elections by defeating senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury by around 85,000 votes.
Pathan and Ganguly had earlier shared the dressing room at Kolkata Knight Riders during their IPL careers.
Speculation Amid TMC Crisis
The report surfaced at a time when speculation continues over Mamata Banerjee’s political future after the Trinamool Congress suffered defeat in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.
The party, which had ruled the state for 15 years, was reduced to 80 seats in the 294-member Assembly, while Banerjee herself lost her seat to BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari.
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The controversy also comes amid one of the biggest internal crises faced by the TMC in its three-decade history.
This week, 58 of the party’s 80 MLAs rebelled, with Assembly Speaker recognising expelled legislator Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of the Opposition — a move the TMC has termed “illegal” and said it would challenge in court.
The turmoil within the party became more visible on Friday when only eight non-rebelling MLAs attended a meeting convened by Mamata Banerjee at her Kalighat residence in Kolkata.
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