Former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary has quit the All India Trinamool Congress a day after the party was repulsed in the Bengal elections. Tiwary, who was Bengal’s junior sports minister, told PTI in an interview that he was quitting the party.
During his split with the TMC, the former Bengal cricketer made serious allegations against outgoing sports minister Aroop Biswas, saying he had no idea about the state’s sports ecosystem.
“Aroop Da doesn’t know the A, B, C, D of any sport. There would be functions where both Aroop da and I would be invited and I wouldn’t be called on stage. There was one Durand Cup unveiling where my photos appeared on sports pages and I wouldn’t get any invitation from the next Durand Cup,” claimed Tiwary.
Biswa lost to Papia Adhikary of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the election by 6,000 votes. One of the highlights of his tenure as a minister was Lionel Messi’s visit to Calcutta, which turned into a complete disaster.
The mismanaged event led to vandalism at the iconic Salt Lake stadium after the crowd was denied even a clear view of Messi as politicians and local administrators attacked the icon, who was taken away early for security reasons.
Tiwary said he was glad he did not attend Lionel Messi’s event in Kolkata, which ended up being a “royal mess”.
“I knew something like this would happen and refrained from participating in the event. I didn’t want to be part of an event where common people were taken for a ride. I repeatedly asked Aroop da, ‘Dada, please implement a sports policy as per the allocated budget’. He never bothered,” said Tiwary.
After quitting BJP, Tiwary wants to start his coaching journey. He is not interested in joining another political party. BJP’s victory 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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Issued by:
Kingshuk Kusari
Published on:
05 May 2026 17:16 IST
