Yusuf Pathan made his name as an innings finisher – a hard-hitting specialist for India and Kolkata Knight Riders who cleared the ropes when it mattered. Now the Trinamool MP from Baharampur is at the center of a very different contest, with his party leaders describing him as a potential defector even though he has said nothing himself. But his former commander has already come the distance.
Yusuf Pathan’s name emerged as the TMC’s Lok Sabha unit split, with a rebel group led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar claiming to have “nearly 20 MPs” who would support the BJP-led NDA regime.
The first to call out the occasional off-spinner Pathan was TMC’s Krishnanagar MP Mahua Moitra. “and [Yusuf Pathan] You are rushing to Delhi because [Union home minister and BJP leader Amit Shah] Did he call you?” she wrote on X.
“Have some courage. You played for India. Our region voted for you by a huge margin. Have some shame and some backbone,” Moitra, who is also known for her adventurous style, told the former batsman.
A day later the charge was repeated by Kalyan Banerjee, the TMC Lok Sabha chairman who was appointed when Mamata Banerjee took over from Kakoli Ghosh amid the unrest that began after TMC’s loss to the BJP in Bengal.
“I spoke to Yusuf Pathan yesterday (June 8). He was in Baroda (Vadodara). He said that Amit Shah had called him and that he was coming to Delhi to meet him,” Kalyan Banerjee told a press conference, describing the Home Minister as “the person” who is working to dismantle the TMC. He said the rebels “changed their leader from Mamata Banerjee to Narendra Modi.”
Yusuf Pathan, Amit Shah, and Narendra Modi are all Gujaratis. Pathan became an MP from Bengal after Mamata personally selected him for a TMC ticket in 2024, due to him being a Muslim and a larger-than-life cricket star.
Yusuf Pathan, whose brother Irfan was also a star for Team India, remained silent.
Meanwhile, Sharadwat Mukherjee, a BJP member in Bengal, said: “Pathan has escaped and has already gone to another club,” speaking in not-so-difficult riddles.
Pathan reportedly arrived in Delhi on Monday afternoon with fellow MP Rachana Banerjee, but it was not clear whose side he was on. He has not been confirmed among the signatories of the alleged rebel letter seeking separate Lok Sabha seats. Pro-Mamata Banerjee MP Kirti Azad insists that only 13 MPs have actually signed, while a revolt by two-thirds, 19 of the total 28 LS MPs, is necessary to keep their seats under the anti-defection law.
Ganguly Googly
A few days ago, Pathan appeared in another related story. A front-page report in Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika on June 4 said that Mamata Banerjee – who lost her parliamentary seat to Suvendu Adhikari in the April-May elections – wanted to enter the Lok Sabha through by-elections, and had sent a letter, via former India captain Sourav Ganguly, asking Pathan to vacate Baharampur to her. Pathan refused, the report said.
Ganguly has flatly shot that down. In a signed statement to “all media” on June 6, he described the allegations “as far as I am concerned… in reckless disregard for the truth.”
“Mrs. Mamata Banerjee never asked me to convey any message from her to Mr. Yusuf Pathan,” Ganguly said, adding, “I never approached or contacted Mr. Yusuf Pathan regarding any such request/letter or any other request/letter.”
Pathan has gone from being someone who could have vacated a seat for Mamata, to saying no, and is now allegedly being lured away from her.
A member of India’s 2011 World Cup-winning team who retired from all cricket in 2021, Yusuf Pathan, 43, won Baharampur in 2024 in one of the landmark results of that election, defeating five-term Congress veteran Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury by about 85,000 votes.
TMC breakdown
His position falls within the broader collapse of Team Mamata, as TMC was once seen to be.
The rebel camp led by Parasat MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar says nearly 20 of the TMC’s 28 members in the Lok Sabha support the NDA and want it recognized as a separate bloc – and they need 19 members to cross the anti-defection barrier. This comes in the wake of a revolt in the Bengal Assembly, where 58 of the 80 TMC MLAs backed ousted leader Ritabrata Banerjee as leader of the opposition.
