Ex-India cricketer quits TMC day after BJP sweep, slams outgoing sports minister

Former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary has quit All India Trinamool Congress a day after the party was hammered in the Bengal elections. Tiwary, who was the junior sports minister of Bengal, told PTI in an interview that he was quitting the party.

While parting ways from the TMC, the former Bengal cricketer levelled serious allegations against outgoing sports minister Aroop Biswas, stating that he did not have any clue about the sporting ecosystem of the state.

"Aroop Da doesn't know A, B, C, D of any sport. There would be functions where both Aroop da and I would be invited and I would not be called on the dais. There was one Durand Cup unveiling where my pictures were flashed on sports pages and from the next Durand Cup, I wouldn't get any invite," Tiwary alleged.

Biswas lost to Papia Adhikary of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the elections by 6,000 votes. One of the major flashpoints in the minister's tenure was Lionel Messi's visit to Kolkata, which turned into an utter disaster.

The poorly managed event led to vandalism at the iconic Salt Lake Stadium after a capacity crowd was denied even a clear view of Messi as politicians and local administrators mobbed the icon, who was whisked away early due to security concerns.

Tiwary said that he was happy he did not attend the Lionel Messi event in Kolkata, which became a "royal mess" in the end.

"I knew something like this would happen and refrained from attending the event. I didn't want to be part of an event where common people were taken for a ride. I would repeatedly ask Aroop da, 'Dada please introduce a sports policy as per allocated budget'. He never bothered," Tiwary said.

After quitting BJP, Tiwary wants to begin his coaching journey. He is not interested in joining any other political party. The BJP's win in Bengal completes the last frontier for the party in the Gangetic belt. This is the first time the party has come to power in the state.

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