Sourav joining BJP will be a Big Boost: Babul Supriyo

Kolkata, Jan 22 (IANS) The BJP Thursday dismissed speculation on Sourav Ganguly joining the party, but union minister Babul Supriyo said if the former India cricket captain does join, it will be a big boost.

"I don't know about his joining the BJP. But, he is a very big icon and if he joins, the path that we are trying to walk under the leadership of our captain Narendra Modi, I think it will give a big boost," Supriyo, union minister of state for urban development, told media persons here.

The speculation began after industrialist Harsh Goenka Wednesday tweeted that Ganguly was all set to join the BJP.

Goenka's brother and chairman of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, Sanjiv Goenka, too denied having any knowledge about it.

Earlier Thursday, BJP national secretary and party in-charge for West Bengal Siddharth Nath Singh dismissed the speculation, saying there was no truth in the industrialist's claim.

Ganguly, who has been nominated along with others by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Swachh Bharat Mission, had earlier rejected ideas of taking the political plunge.

"I am better off in the ground," Ganguly had said last year following reports that he was offered to contest the Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket.