Influenced by PM Modi's vision: Gautam Gambhir on joining BJP

Days before the elections, it was announced that former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir will be joining the Bharatiya Janata Party, thus ending months of speculation of the cricketer joining the major party. Union Minister Arun Jaitley hailed the move calling it a "significant induction". Jaitley was one of the two union minister at the occasion, according to NDTV. The speculation has now changed tracks to where he will be contesting for. Reports suggest that he may be fielded from the significant New Delhi constituency which is currently held by BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi. "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," the 37-year old Gambhir said. Arun Jaitley refused to shed light on what comes next for the cricketer's stint as a politician instead saying, "Leave the decision to the party's election committee". Gautam Gambhir is a resident of Delhi's Rajinder Nagar which falls within the New Delhi constituency. This announcement has been a long time coming especially if one goes by the cricketer's posts on social media which have been in support of the administration policies for a really long time. He had discussed joining politics before and this announcement is just the culmination of what he said he wanted. Gautam Gambhir is the latest in a long list of cricketer's turned politicians which notably also includes Kirti Azad- former BJP member who was suspended in 2015 for openly targeting Arun Jaitley of corruption during the latter's stint as the president of the Delhi District Cricket Association. Azad was announced as joining Congress in February 2019. In May 2016, the BJP had also fielded cricketer S Sreesanth from Thiruvananthapuram in the Kerala assembly elections where he finished with the third highest with 27.5% of the total votes.