Gautam Gambhir to contest from East Delhi: Twitter reacts

Gautam Gambhir

Bharatiya Janata Party announced on Monday that former cricketer Gautam Gambhir will be contesting the Lok Sabha election from the East Delhi constituency while BJP parliamentarian Meenakshi Lekhi will be contesting from the New Delhi constituency.

According to the second list of candidates released by the BJP, politician-turned-cricketer has replaced Maheish Girri as the party's candidate and will compete against Congress candidate Arvinder Singh Lovely, and AAP candidate Atishi.

Gambhir, who had quit the game almost three months ago, had joined the party on March 22 in the presence of Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. After joining the party, Gambhir had said that he was impressed by the vision of PM Modi and will work towards the welfare of the country.

He said, "I have been influenced by the PM, his vision for the country. This is a fabulous platform for me to do something for the country."

Gambhir is considered to be the latest cricketer to join politics. Before him, ex-cricketers like Navjot Singh Sidhu, Mohammad Azharuddin, Kirti Azad, Chetan Chauhan, Mohammed Kaif have forayed into politics.

Gambhir thanked National Secretary of BJP Maheish Girri who wished him success and hoped that Gautam Gambhir would win the East Delhi seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Following Gambhir's foray into politics, Twitter erupts with mixed reactions. Here are some of the reactions:

Also Read: Elections 2019: BJP fields ex-cricketer Gautam Gambhir from East Delhi

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get the latest updates