Hyderabad: Former India cricketer Yusuf Pathan on Monday reacted to senior Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's statement saying he is quite confident of winning by a huge margin from Berhampore Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal.
Pathan, who has been fielded by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC), has entered the battleground of politics for the first time as he competes against Chowdhury. Pathan is pitted against Chowdhury, who was the Congress leader in the 17th Lok Sabha, and Nirmal Kumar Saha of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).
Earlier in the day, speaking to reporters, Chowdhury said that he was competing with the BJP and the TMC had unnecessarily nominated Pathan from Berhampore.
"We are going to win and there is no doubt about that. I am extremely confident. Some isolated incidents have taken place at about four to five places. We are also going to file a complaint. I am competing with the BJP and TMC, not with any individual. TMC should not have nominated Yusuf Pathan from here, he has been unnecessarily nominated from here (Berhampore)," Chowdhury said.
Reacting to Chowdhary's claims, Pathan said he was happy to see that youth and women are voting in large numbers and he is confident of emerging victorious.
"There is a positive environment. I have full faith that I will win with a huge margin. If I have to sacrifice for the people then I am ready, I have come here to work for the people. People have supported me a lot, they want a change here," Pathan told news agency ANI.
The voting for the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections in 96 Parliamentary Constituencies across nine states and one Union Territory is underway and a voter turnout of 66.05 per cent was reported at 1 pm.
Chowdhury defeated TMC's Apurba Sarkar from the constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with a margin of 80,696 votes. Though still a part of the Opposition bloc -- INDIA, the TMC chose to go it alone in Bengal and announced candidates for all 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
The Congress and the Left Front have a seat-sharing arrangement in the state under which the Left parties contest 30 seats and the Congress contests the remaining 12 seats.
