Babul Supriyo joins Trinamool Congress days after he ‘quit politics'

In an unexpected development on Saturday, former Union minister Babul Supriyo joined the Trinamool Congress, days after he officially announced to have quit politics. Babul Supriyo was one of the staunch critics of Trinamool Supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and as he had announced his resignation from politics, he earlier maintained that he would not be joining any other political party. 

In the latest Cabinet reshuffle, Babul Supriyo was dropped from the Cabinet and within a few days, he announced his self-exile from politics. However, he did not officially resign as an MP from the BJP.

There was no murmur about Babul Supriyo joining the Trinamool as reports said that the BJP kept the singer-turned-politician as a star campaigner for BJP's Bhabanipur by-poll candidate Priyanka Tibrewal. In fact, he tweeted in support of Tibrewal, who represented the former minister in several legal cases, Supriyo had tweeted.

The Trinamool said this is just the beginning as many BJP leaders are in communication with TMC leadership. “They are not satisfied with BJP. One (Babul Supriyo) joined today, another wants to join tomorrow. This process will go on. Wait and watch,” Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh said.

The exit of a heavyweight former minister and popular singer just ahead of the Bhabanipur by-election in which Priyanka Tibrewal will be challenging Mamata Banerjee bolsters TMC's strength. 

The former banker and singer joined the BJP in 2014 and won from the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency. Between 2014 and 2021, he served as a minister of the state of several departments including urban development, housing, urban poverty alleviation, ministry of heavy industries, public enterprises, the ministry of environment, forest and climate change etc. His significance in the party in the state got whittled down because of Dilip Ghosh, while he lost his Cabinet post after he was defeated in the West Bengal assembly election.

The former minister has remained thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, but in many of his social media posts, he revealed how infighting among the BJP in West Bengal wad demoralising the grassroots workers.