Kolkata, Dec 15: Hours after his statement that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sent a proposal of contesting Lok Sabha election with a BJP ticket, Sourav Ganguly on Saturday, Dec 14 made his stand clear on the issue.

The cricket legend, who created several records on cricket ground, rejected to accept the proposal saying he will not contest the upcoming general election which is expected to be held by May 2014.

The former skipper of Team India was quoted as saying, "Yes, the BJP did make an offer. However, I have declined it. I won't be contesting the elections."

Earlier it was reported that BJP's PM candidate -- Narendra Modi wanted to project Ganguly as the Sports Minister of India if the party comes to power post 2014 poll. Now, it seems that Ganguly's decision of not joining BJP may hurt party's image as other party leaders may target BJP and Modi over this issue.

No. My place is cricket ground, not the Parliament: Sourav Ganguly

Ganguly also hinted that he is not willing to join politics and wants to keep himself away from Parliament and other political activities. While questioned about his reaction if he is offered Rajya Sabha seat like Sachin Tendulkar, Ganguly said, "No. My place is cricket ground, not the Parliament."

In the Trinamool Congress-ruled Bengal with 42 seats, BJP has a solitary presence in Darjeeling. It was reported that speculations over Ganguly and BJP surfaced when the former met BJP leader Varun Gandhi. Varun, the national general secretary of BJP, is also the observer for West Bengal.

OneIndia News