West Bengal: Former Cricketer Ashoke Dinda Joins BJP; Thanks Party For Opportunity To Serve The People Of State

Former cricketer Ashoke Dinda on Wednesday (15 February) joined Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections in Kolkata.

The veteran pacer was formally inducted into the party in presence of the Union Minister Babul Supriyo and state BJP vice president Arjun Singh at a public meeting in Kolkata.

He tweeted, “I feel blessed to announce that I have been given an opportunity by @BJP4India to serve the people of this state. I would want to thank @narendramodi Ji , @AmitShahJi , @SuvenduWB Dada and the entire team for showing faith in me.”

Earlier this month, the former India and Bengal pacer had announced retirement from all forms of cricket citing a knee injury. He played 13 One-day Internationals and nine T20 Internationals for India.

Dinda also represented Delhi Dardevils, Rising Pune Supergiants, Pune Warriors, Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.

Earlier today, famous actress Payel Sarkar joined BJP in presence of the state party chief Dilip Ghosh and national party president JP Nadda.

The party launched 'Lokkho Sonar Bangla (manifesto) crowdsourcing campaign', in Kolkata. Apart from Ghosh and Nadda, party's National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya was also present on the occasion.

“We're making efforts to work towards making 'Sonar Bangla', with inclusion of contributions of Swami Vivekanand, Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Syama Prasad Mukherjee, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar in prestigious history of West Bengal,” said Nadda.

“Pride of Bengal has to come back. The Sonar Bangla has to come back. The Bengal that led the entire country has to come back,” he said.