Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has strongly denied reports suggesting that he was asked by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to persuade Baharampur MP Yusuf Pathan to resign from Parliament to facilitate a possible bypoll route for her entry into the Lok Sabha.
The controversy stems from a report in a Bengali daily which claimed that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had explored the possibility of Banerjee entering Parliament through a bypoll from the Baharampur constituency in Murshidabad district. The seat was won by Pathan in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where he defeated senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
According to the report, the party allegedly reached out to Ganguly—who shares a past association with Pathan from their time at Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL—to communicate a request for him to step down. The report further suggested that Pathan had declined any such proposal.
As the claims gained political traction in West Bengal, Ganguly issued a detailed clarification on Saturday, dismissing the report as “completely false” and “in reckless disregard of the truth”.
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The former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president said he had no involvement in political negotiations of this nature and had never been asked by Mamata Banerjee or anyone else to approach Yusuf Pathan. He also categorically denied any communication with the MP on the matter.
“I never approached or contacted Yusuf Pathan,” Ganguly said in his statement, adding that the allegations attributed to him were baseless. He further stated that, as a result, the question of Pathan responding in the manner suggested in the report “does not and cannot arise”.
Ganguly’s clarification comes at a time of heightened political activity in the state, with the TMC leadership focusing on internal consolidation following its recent electoral setback in the West Bengal Assembly elections.
The report also coincides with speculation over the party’s strategy for strengthening its parliamentary presence, though no official statement from the TMC has confirmed any such plan involving the Baharampur seat.
With the clarification now issued, Ganguly has sought to distance himself entirely from the political narrative that briefly linked him to a potential bypoll manoeuvre in Bengal politics.
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