Kirti Azad, Pavan Varma join Trinamool Congress

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 23

Former cricketer Kirti Azad and diplomat-turned-politician Pavan K Varma joined the Trinamool Congress on Tuesday, the party said Tuesday.

Both joined the party in a ceremony that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the supremo of the TMC, attended.

A member of the 1983 cricket World Cup-winning squad and son of former Bihar Chief Minister Bhagwat Jha Azad, Kirti Azad was suspended from the Bharatiya Janata Party for openly targeting then-Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over alleged irregularities and corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association in 2015.

He joined the Congress in 2018.

Azad was elected to the Lok Sabha twice from Darbhanga in Bihar on a BJP ticket.

He contested from Dhanbad in the 2019 Lok Sabha General Election on Congress ticket but lost to BJP’s Pashupati Nath Singh.

Talking to reporters, Varma said he would like to see Banerjee in Delhi after the 2024 Lok Sabha General Elections in the country.

Asked whether he would be assigned the charge of Bihar by TMC, Varma said he would be happy to carry out any work entrusted to him by the party.

Varma had earlier served as an adviser with cabinet rank to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. He also remained a JD (U) representative in the Rajya Sabha.

Varma was expelled from JD (U) by Nitish Kumar in 2019.

Noted Urdu poet and Bollywood scriptwriter Javed Akhtar and former BJP leader Sudheendra Kulkarni also meet Mamata Banerjee in Delhi on Tuesday.