Ex-cricketer who became a politician Kirti Azad emerged victorious in the Bardhaman-Durgapur seat of West Bengal by defeating BJP heavyweight Dilip Ghosh with a margin of 1,37,981 lakh votes on Tuesday.
The territory was strange to either candidate and Azad got rid of Ghosh; the senior-most state leaders of BJP.
His amazing win can be likened to his famous ‘grubber’ that cleaned Ian Botham’s stumps in the semi-final match of the 1983 World Cup played at The Oval.
Botham, Number one all-rounder globally those days could only turn around angrily at his dislocated furniture. It is also surprising how things unfolded for Ghosh during this election.
This 65-year old man’s victory is arguably one of the biggest achievements for Trinamool Congress.
Azad defected from Bharatiya Janata Party after successive victories in Darbhanga (Bihar) elections when he fell out with Arun Jaitley over charges of corruption at Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA).
Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister, West Bengal along with her nephew Abhishek has given a second wind to Azad’s political career.
Azad as a batsman has always been an independent-minded individual while captaining autocratically in cricketing career.
Thus some critics purport he used his closeness to Kapil Dev as protection while making it into Indian team but there is no question that against off-spin bowlers especially, he was quite fearsome in domestic cricket.
With Bishan Singh Bedi late, they would regularly publish missives criticising DDCA functioning and attacking Jaitley over issues literally head-on.
Although opinions about him have always been divided with some calling him straight talking others opportunistic one thing remains clear – Kirti Azad hardly goes unnoticed.
