Bengal polls: Buzz around Leander Paes joining BJP gains steam after meeting

The buzz in Kolkata’s political circles on Wednesday was whether tennis legend Leander Paes would be joining BJP following reports of him meeting Nitin Nabin, the party’s national chief, at a Kolkata hotel on Tuesday evening. The former world No.1 doubles player and Olympic medallist, who has made Kolkata his home again after a long and decorated career, could not be reached for his comments.

 In almost a throwback to the last assembly elections in 2021 in Bengal when the BJP had actively wooed former India captain Sourav Ganguly, there are reports that the ITF Hall of Famer is very much within their radar. Unlike Ganguly who had never taken any formal plunge in the political arena despite his proximity to those in the corridors of powers,  Paes is no stranger to it as he had joined Trinamool Congress in 2021 but had largely remained inactive in frontline politics since then.

 The meeting between Paes and Nabin was also attended by state BJP president  Samik Bhattacharya, though the later was evasive about the issue when grilled by the local media on Wednesday.

When Paes joined Trinamool five years back, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had addressed him as a “younger brother’’. However, his political trajectory within the party soon appeared uncertain and Paes was notably left out of the party’s 69-member Goa state committee announced in January 2022, raising his relevance within the party. Incidentally, the Paes family hails from Goa with his Olympian father Dr Vece Paes hailing from there.  

 Incidentally, BJP released the names of another 19 candidates late on Wednesday in addition to the names of 255 candidates in two phases earlier. A conspicuous choice among them is the mother of the junior doctor, who was allegedly raped and murdered while on duty at the R.G. Kar Hospital in 2024, which sparked off demands for justice throughout the state. The remaining names are expected to be announced by this weekend.