West Bengal Assembly election 2021, Manoj Tiwary profile: Cricketer to contest on TMC ticket from Shibpur

Cricketer Manoj Tiwary, who joined the Trinamool Congress in February, will contest from the Shibpur constituency, Howrah, in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly polls. Tiwari will take on former Howrah mayor Rathindranath Chakraborty, who defected to the BJP from the TMC, on 10 April in the fourth of the eight-phased Assembly election. Tiwary has represented India in 12 ODIs, amassing 287 runs which includes a century and a half-century. In the shortest format of the game, Tiwary played three games for India and scored 15 runs. He represents Bengal in domestic cricket and has played for Kolkata Knight Riders, Kings XI Punjab and Rising Pune Supergiants in the Indian Premier League. While his international career didn’t go as planned, he will sign off as a domestic legend who won many a game for state team Bengal. Apart from scoring prolifically for the state team across formats, he has also played a key role in mentoring the youngsters coming into the squad. After joining the party, Tiwary said Mamata Banerjee is trying to unite people together. “BJP is playing divisive policy and Mamata Banerjee is trying to unite people together. When I play cricket, I play for the country, not on the basis of religion,” he had said earlier in February this year. Shibpur is an Assembly in the Howrah district of West Bengal. It falls under the Howrah Lok Sabha constituency. The voting will begin on 27 March, with Bengal having the maximum eight phases continuing till 29 April. Including Shibpur, 43 Assembly seats will go to polls in the fourth phase. The results of the election will be declared on 2 May. The state is held by the AITC with an absolute majority, with Mamata Banerjee on her second consecutive term as chief minister. The ruling party is fighting a pitched battle with archrival BJP, while the Congress-led alliance is also a key player in the fray.