Photoshopped Images Viral To Claim Sourav Ganguly Is To Join Politics

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India, 12 March 2021 11:50 AM GMT

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Many social media users are sharing digitally morphed images of BCCI President Sourav Ganguly to claim that he is going to join politics. The Logical Indian Fact-check team debunked the claim.

Many social media users are sharing images of the BCCI President and former Indian cricketer Sourav Ganguly, purportedly posing with banners of three different political parties. While some people are sharing an image of Saurav Ganguly in front of BJP's logo, others are sharing an image of him with the All India Trinamool Congress logo, and many others are sharing an image of him with CPI(M) logo. These images have a common text written in Bengali, which translates in English as "Welcome Dada".

These images are being shared ahead of West Bengal elections scheduled to be held between 27 March to 29 April 2021 in 8 phases. The images are being shared as many people speculate that Sourav Ganguly may join politics after he was assigned the post of President of BCCI. Social media users were speculating that he was to join Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally in Kolkata.

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Claim:

The viral image is of Sourav Ganguly posing in front of banners of various political parties.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian did a reverse image search and found an image of Saurav Ganguly in a similar pose but with the background of a poster of Cycle Agarbatti (incense stick). The original image was published on Pinterest as a promotion of Cycle Rhythm Agarbatti, endorsed by Sourav Ganguly.

A 4-year-old video for the promotion of Cycle Rhythm Agarbatti, in which one can see Sourav Ganguly endorsing the product, is also published on the company's official YouTube website.

Sourav Ganguly had also tweeted an image of him endorsing Cycle Rhythm Agarbatti on September 4, 2016.

The sweet smell of cycle rhythm agarbatti pic.twitter.com/YCa8X8Nmrv
— Sourav Ganguly (@SGanguly99) September 4, 2016

Hence, an old image has been morphed and circulated on social media to claim Ganguly is joining politics. However, Sourav Ganguly has refuted the claim of joining politics. According to a report on The Times of India published on March 5, Ganguly has denied the claim of him joining politics. He said to a private media channel, "Sobai sob kichhur jonyo hoy na (everyone is not meant for every role)." TOI also spoke to Asok Bhattacharya, a CPI(M) leader and friend of Ganguly. Bhattacharya said, "Sourav called me today. He told me that he is content with what he is doing and doesn't want to join politics."