||Desk Report||

Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir joined the country’s ruling party BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, reports the local media on Friday. Gambhir officially joined the party in the presence of Union Ministers Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad. Later he met party President Amit Shah after.

However, Gambhir was one of the high-profile campaigners for Jaitley's 2014 contest in Punjab's Amritsar seat which the BJP lost. The 37-year-old cricketer thanked the BJP for giving him an opportunity to serve the country.

"I am joining this party (BJP) after getting influenced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision. I am honoured to get the opportunity. I will work to take this country forward and make it a better place to live in,"  he told after joining.

The BJP did not declare the constituency from where Gambhir will contest but informed sources said he may contest from the New Delhi constituency currently held by BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi. Jaitley said the BJP had expanded in the last decade and that "we were called a cadre-based party and now we are cadre mass party".

Gambhir, who officially retired from cricket last year December 4, had played 58 Tests and 147 ODIs for India. He scored 4,154 runs at an average of 41.95, including nine centuries and 22 fifties in Tests while scored 5,238 runs at an average of 39.68 and a strike-rate of 85.25 in ODIs.