A day after hosting Union Home Minister Amit Shah over dinner at his Kolkata residence, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief Sourav Ganguly on Saturday, 7 May, said that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee – a fierce opponent of the Bharatiya Janata Party – is "very close" to him, reported NDTV.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony of a private hospital in Kolkata, Ganguly said, "Our honorable Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is a person very close to me. I had approached her to help up this institute."
Ganguly's praise for the West Bengal chief minister comes after his dinner with Shah – who he said is an acquaintance of 14 years – had set off a bevy of speculations around his possible entry into politics.
Downplaying such chatter, Ganguly had on Friday, 6 May, said, "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 added that that the Union Home Minister's son Jay Shah – the Secretary at BCCI – was his colleague.
Shah, who was on an official tour of West Bengal, had visited the state for the first time after his party's defeat in the 2021 Assembly elections.
(With inputs from NDTV.)
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