Ahead of the Assembly polls in West Bengal, former cricketer Ashoke Dinda joined the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday in presence of Union Minister Babul Supriyo and state BJP vice-president Arjun Singh at a public meeting in Kolkata.
On February 2, Dinda announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. Although the 36-year-old fast bowler had a short-lived international career, his contribution for Bengal in domestic cricket is massive.
Dinda played 116 first-class matches for Bengal, bagging 420 wickets at a bowling average of 28.28. In List A matches, he played 98 fixtures in his career bagging 151 wickets.
In his international career, the pacer played 13 ODIs and 9 T20Is, picking up 12 and 17 wickets respectively.
Last week, popular Bengali actor Yash Dasgupta joined the BJP ahead of the Assembly polls in the presence of West Bengal BJP observer Kailash Vijaywargiya, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, and BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy.
As the elections are approaching, the BJP is pulling out all the stops to unseat Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the ruling Trinmool Congress (TMC).
Recently, there has been an exodus from the TMC to the BJP. Former TMC heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari, former state forest minister Rajib Banerjee, former cricket administrator Jagmohan Dalmiya’s daughter Baishali Dalmiya, former Howrah mayor Rathin Chakravarty, former MLA and former Ranaghat civic chief Partha Sarathi Chatterjee and actor-turned-TMC politician Rudranil Ghosh are a few who have joined the saffron party.
