Former Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Asansol Babul Supriyo on Saturday announced on social media his decision to quit politics and also resign as a Lok Sabha MP.
The surprising announcement was made by the singer-turned-politician in a detailed Facebook post in Bengali titled “Alvida” (goodbye), in which he added “resigning from my MP-ship too (obviously)”.
The most interesting thing that emerged from the social media announcement was that the MP had initially posted he was a “team player” and was not joining any other political party — the Trinamool Congress, the Communist Party of India-Marxist or the Congress, he mentioned — but later, this portion was edited out from the post.
The two-time Asansol MP who was the part of the Union Council of Ministers under Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the past seven years. He was upset at being dropped in the recent Cabinet reshuffle. “Questions will definitely arise, [on] why I have decided to quit politics. Does it have anything to do with being dropped as a Minister? Yes, it does, some of it certainly does,” the MP has said in the post from an account verified to his name.
Mr Supriyo also contested the West Bengal Assembly Election earlier this year from Tollygunj Assembly seat in south Kolkata and lost to Trinamool Congress leader and Minister Aroop Biswas by a margin of about 50,000 votes.
Two Union Ministers of State Babul Supriyo and Debasree Chaudhuri were dropped as ministers in the Cabinet reshuffle on July 7 . Four other MPs from West Bengal –Nishit Pramanik, Santanu Thakur, Subhas Sarkar and John Barla were inducted as MoS in the ministry.
The MP went on to compare the situation in 2014 and 2019 and said that in 2014, he was only BJP MP from West Bengal stating that Darjeeling MP S S Ahluwalia had won the Lok Sabha polls because of support of Gorkha Janamukti Morcha. the BJP had two Lok Sabha Mps from the State in 2014 and the number rose to 18 in 2019
Mr Supriyo also spoke about his differences and “disagreements with the state leadership on some issues” though he did not name anyone. The differences between him and State BJP president Dilip Ghosh have come out in public on several occasions. Mr Ghosh had objected to the matter Mr Supriyo had gone on social media announcing that he has been asked to step down as a Minister. Asked about the development the State BJP president said that he has not received any written resignation from the MP and would not react to " posts on social media".
The development comes as a major embarrassment to the BJP which is battling dissent and defection after the party suffered humiliating defeat in the State Assembly polls at the hands of Trinamool Congress. . Mukul Roy, who was national vice president of the BJP had joined TMC in June 2021, a month after the Assembly polls. A few weeks ago, another BJP MP Saumitra Khan had announced his decision to step down and president of BJP Yuva Morcha, but later withdrawn his resignation.
While certain TMC leaders like MP Saugata Roy said that Mr Supriyo was upset for being dropped as a Minister party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh described the developments concerning Mr Supriyo as " drama by resigning on fakebook" and " desperate attempt to attract attention".
