‘Mamata Banerjee did not say anything’, Yusuf Pathan said for the first time after leaving the seat

Some media reports claimed that Trinamool Congress President Mamata Banerjee had contacted Yusuf Pathan, MP from Baharampur Lok Sabha seat. Urged him to leave his seat, so that Mamata Banerjee can reach the Lok Sabha by winning the by-election here. It was also claimed that former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly contacted Yusuf Pathan on behalf of Mamata Banerjee. On Saturday, first Sourav Ganguly and later TMC MP Yusuf Pathan gave their reaction. Both of them termed these speculations as rumours.

On media reports and speculations, TMC MP and former cricketer Yusuf Pathan said, ‘A news has been going viral for a long time that Mamata Banerjee has asked me to resign from Baharampur Lok Sabha seat, so that she can contest elections from there. Mamta Banerjee never talked to me on this matter. This claim is completely wrong. Neither Mamata Banerjee nor any party leader has asked me to resign from the post of MP.

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Ganguly said- wrong and false allegations were made against me

Before Yusuf Pathan, Sourav Ganguly issued his statement on Saturday. In his letter, Ganguly referred to an article published in a local newspaper of Bengal on June 4. He said that in the newspaper article he was wrongly accused that I had contacted Yusuf Pathan, MP from Baharampur Lok Sabha parliamentary constituency, on behalf of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. It was also alleged that on behalf of Mamata Banerjee, I asked Yusuf Pathan to resign from his post, so that Mamata Banerjee could contest the by-election from there.

‘Don’t believe rumors and speculations’

The article also alleged that Yusuf Pathan did not agree to this. Ganguly further said that these allegations are false. ‘I would request the media not to believe in rumors and speculations without checking the veracity of the news printed and published. It is very unfortunate that it was not considered necessary to investigate the truth and authenticity of these allegations made about me in the article.

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Mamata Banerjee never asked to talk to Yusuf: Ganguly

Ganguly further said, ‘The allegations made against me in the article completely ignore the truth. You will understand that in such circumstances, it was even more important to exercise due diligence to verify the veracity of the claims made in the article before publishing it. Therefore, it is important to clarify that Mamata Banerjee never asked me to convey any message to Yusuf Pathan, whether it was about him quitting his parliamentary seat (as has been alleged) or about anything else. Under these circumstances and under no circumstances did I ever contact Yusuf Pathan for this or any other matter.