Mahua Moitra slams Yusuf Pathan over Gujarat land deal after TMC exit
Synopsis
TMC MP Mahua Moitra has alleged that former cricketer Yusuf Pathan received a 500-sq-m land gift and a 45% discount on the remainder of a contested 978-sq-m Gujarat plot after quitting the Trinamool Congress in June 2026, framing it as a reward for his political switch.
Key Takeaways
TMC MP Mahua Moitra posted the allegation on 21 October 2026 .
Yusuf Pathan allegedly faced a Gujarat government encroachment notice on a 978-sq-m plot valued at ₹20.5 crore while he was a TMC MP.
Pathan reportedly quit the TMC in June 2026 .
The BJP-run Gujarat government is alleged to have gifted him 500 sq m and offered the remaining 478 sq m at a 45 per cent discount after his exit from TMC.
No official response from the Gujarat government or Pathan had emerged at publication time.
The allegation fits a broader pattern of opposition claims that administrative actions in India track the political loyalty of elected representatives.
A 978-square-metre plot in Gujarat, an ₹20.5-crore valuation, and a political defection — TMC MP Mahua Moitra has fired a pointed broadside at former cricketer-turned-politician Yusuf Pathan, alleging that his switch from the Trinamool Congress to the BJP's orbit has been rewarded with a sweetheart land deal by the Gujarat government.
The land arithmetic Moitra lays out
According to Moitra's post on Wednesday, 21 October 2026, the sequence runs like this: Pathan was elected a TMC MP in 2024 and subsequently received a notice from the Gujarat government to clear an alleged 'encroachment' on the 978-sq-m plot. He quit the TMC in June 2026. The BJP-run state administration has since, Moitra alleges, moved to gift him 500 sq m outright while transferring the remaining 478 sq m at a 45 per cent discount. The arithmetic, she implies, is unmistakable: an encroachment threat before the switch, a generous settlement after it.
Moitra closed with a blunt four-word rebuke directed at Pathan — 'Sharm karo Yusuf' ['Have some shame, Yusuf'] — a phrase calculated to sting precisely because it names him directly rather than hiding behind procedural language.
Pathan's political journey and the Gujarat backdrop
Yusuf Pathan, the former Indian all-rounder and World Cup-winner from Baroda, Gujarat, entered electoral politics on a TMC ticket. Gujarat has run sustained urban land-management and anti-encroachment drives under its BJP administration, measures that critics argue have occasionally been deployed with differential intensity depending on the political alignment of the landholder. Indian politics has a documented pattern of opposition claims that administrative actions — notices, allotments, tax raids — track the loyalty of elected representatives rather than strictly neutral enforcement.
Whether those specific allegations hold here is a matter for Gujarat's revenue authorities to answer. No official response from the state government or from Pathan had emerged at the time of publication.
Why the timing is the whole argument
The political charge Moitra is making rests entirely on sequence: encroachment notice while he was a TMC MP, generous resolution after he left. That before-and-after framing is the sharpest tool in the opposition's kit when attacking party defections — it converts an administrative transaction into an apparent price list for political loyalty. The question that will determine whether this allegation gains traction is a simple one: did the state follow standard procedure on comparable plots, or did the terms shift specifically for this one?
Parliament's budget session and state assembly proceedings in Gujarat are the natural next arenas where this could be pressed into the formal record.
Point of View
The risk is reputational rather than immediately legal; it hands the TMC a ready-made defection-cost narrative ahead of future by-elections and budget sessions. The broader pattern of such claims in Indian politics suggests the allegation will gain or lose traction almost entirely on whether Gujarat's revenue department can demonstrate procedural consistency across comparable cases.
NationPress
21 Oct 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Yusuf Pathan Gujarat land controversy?
TMC MP Mahua Moitra has alleged that former cricketer Yusuf Pathan, who quit the Trinamool Congress in June 2026, was subsequently gifted 500 sq m of a contested Gujarat plot and offered the remaining 478 sq m at a 45% discount by the BJP-run state government — terms he did not receive while he was a TMC MP.
When did Yusuf Pathan leave TMC?
According to Mahua Moitra's post, Yusuf Pathan quit the All India Trinamool Congress in June 2026, having been elected a TMC MP in the 2024 general elections.
What was the encroachment notice Yusuf Pathan received?
Moitra alleges that while Pathan was a sitting TMC MP, the Gujarat government asked him to remove an alleged encroachment from a 978-sq-m plot valued at approximately ₹20.5 crore.
Why is Mahua Moitra criticising Yusuf Pathan?
Moitra is alleging that the Gujarat government's favourable land settlement — gifting 500 sq m and offering a deep discount on the rest — came specifically after Pathan left the TMC, implying the deal is a reward for his political switch.
Has the Gujarat government responded to the land allotment allegations?
No official response from the Gujarat government or from Yusuf Pathan had been reported at the time of this article's publication.
