Kolkata:Senior CPI(M) leader Ashok Bhattacharya's statement that BCCI president and former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, who suffered a heart attack and is now hospitalised, was under pressure to join politics created a storm on Sunday.
Speculations were rife that the former batting great will join the BJP ahead of the state assembly elections due in April-May this year. But Ganguly himself never made his intentions quite clear about taking the political plunge.
He underwent angioplasty after a 'mild' heart attack on Saturday. He is under treatment in a private hospital in Kolkata.
'Some people wanted to use Ganguly politically. That probably exerted pressure on him. He is not a political element. He should be known as Sourav the sporting icon,' Bhattacharya, the BCCI presidents longtime family friend, said.
'We should not create pressure on him (for joining politics). I had told Sourav last week he should not join politics and he did not oppose my views,' Bhattacharya who visited Ganguly at the hospital said.