Former India cricketer Yusuf Pathan has made a significant foray into politics by joining The All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) and announcing his candidacy for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Berhampore in West Bengal.
Yusuf’s entry into the political arena sets the stage for an intriguing electoral battle as he prepares to challenge Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress state president and incumbent Lok Sabha representative from Berhampore.
During his cricketing career, Yusuf Pathan represented India at the international level from 2008 to 2012. He featured in 57 One-Day Internationals and 22 Twenty20 International matches, playing a crucial role in India’s T20 World Cup victory in 2007 and the ODI World Cup triumph in 2011.
In another noteworthy move, Kirti Azad, a member of India’s 1983 World Cup-winning cricket team, has also joined TMC’s electoral fray. Azad, who has been serving as the party’s state-in-charge for Goa since March 2022, will contest from the Burdwan-Durgapur constituency.
Having previously held a Lok Sabha seat with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Dhanbad in 2014, Azad’s political journey includes a subsequent electoral defeat with the Indian National Congress from the same constituency.
