Tennis star and fresh BJP recruit Leander Paes on Saturday resurrected the fiasco over Lionel Messi’s Calcutta visit last December, claiming that having someone like Sourav Ganguly as the organiser or a sportsperson as sports minister would have averted the shame.

“When Lionel Messi came to Bengal, he was treated with so much disrespect. I felt very hurt. The way our motherland Bengal was represented at that event was disappointing,” Paes told a news conference at the BJP’s Salt Lake office.

Messi’s eagerly anticipated appearance before fans at the Salt Lake Stadium had ended in chaos and vandalism on December 13. As influential people, including sports minister Aroop Biswas, and others invaded the pitch and cordoned off the star, blocking him from the view of spectators who had paid through their nose to get a glimpse of their hero, the stands had exploded in anger.

Messi, allegedly pushed and shoved by the crowd surrounding him, left the venue prematurely amid a rain of plastic bottles onto the pitch, leaving the Mamata Banerjee government disgraced months before the Assembly elections.

Saturday’s comments by Paes, himself a sportsperson of global repute, suggest the multiple Grand Slam doubles winner and Olympic bronze medallist will be widely used this election to woo young voters and sports fans.

His laudatory reference to Sourav, Bengal’s favourite cricketer, appeared to underline this impression.

“I feel that if Dada, Sourav Ganguly, or his brother Snehasish Ganguly had headed it, or if a sportsperson had been the sports minister and handled the event, such a situation would never have happened,” he said.

“They would have protected the player and upheld the dignity of the state, Bengal and the country.”

There had been speculation about Paes being fielded from Krishnanagar Uttar but a source said the tennis star had at the eleventh hour declined to contest, saying he wanted to campaign freely across Bengal.

The BJP’s fifth list of candidates, released on Saturday night, featured local candidate Taraknath Chatterjee as candidate from Krishnanagar Uttar.

Paes, who had joined Trinamool in Goa in 2021 and campaigned for the party, officially joined the BJP in Delhi on March 31 after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He arrived in Calcutta on Friday night.

At Saturday’s news conference, he said he would work to develop sports in Bengal and promote youth participation in sports.

“I want to develop sports, sports education, and the ancillary industries related to sports in Bengal,” the 52-year-old said.

Praising Modi, he said: “After a long day of hard work, when the Prime Minister returned to Delhi from Assam, he listened attentively to a boy from Bengal. After hearing my pinpoint ideas, Modiji gave me clear direction regarding youth and sports. His vision for sports is very clear.”

After Paes joined the BJP, Trinamool had labelled him an “outsider”. On Saturday, Paes insisted he was a son of Bengal, referring to the state as his “motherland”.

“The opportunity he (Modi) has given to a boy from Bengal — I want to serve the country by aligning myself with this vision for sports and youth. I will do whatever it takes to make India a superpower in sports,” he told reporters.

“Leander Paes is Bengali. Bengal is my motherland. Yes, my name is not Sourav Ganguly, my name is Leander Paes, because my father is from Goa. But we are all citizens of the same country, aren’t we?”

Paes was born at Beckbagan in Calcutta and honed his sporting skills on the city’s playgrounds. He studied at La Martiniere and St Xavier’s in the city.

His father Vece Paes was a member of India’s bronze medal-winning hockey team at the 1972 Olympics, while his mother Jennifer Paes — a descendant of Michael Madhusudan Dutt — captained the Indian basketball team.

Trinamool mocked Paes’s Messi remarks, suggesting his comments applied equally to cricket czar Jay Shah, son of Union home minister Amit Shah.

“If he claims there’s a need for a sportsperson to handle sports-related departments or events, he is indirectly mocking Jay Shah, son of Amit Shah. Despite having no background in cricket, he became ICC chairman,” Trinamool spokesperson Arup Chakraborty said.

Candidate list

The BJP’s latest candidate list has five names. Sourav Sikdar, nephew of former party MP and Union minister Tapan Sikdar, has been fielded from Dum Dum Uttar.

Veteran Raju Banerjee will contest from Madhyamgram. The party has changed candidates in three seats — Behala Purba, Basirhat Uttar and Bishnupur.