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‘Didi will decide’: Babul Supriyo on his new role after meeting Mamata Banerjee
Former Union minister of state Babul Supriyo met West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee at Nabanna, the state secretariat, on Monday, and said after the talks that he is thankful to her and her nephew and Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee for welcoming him to their party
Former Union minister of state Babul Supriyo met West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee at Nabanna, the state secretariat, on Monday, and said after the talks that he is thankful to her and her nephew and Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee for welcoming him to their party. He referred to the CM as Didi (elder sister).
“Didi will decide what role I will play in the TMC. I profusely thank Didi and Abhishek for welcoming me with such warmth. She asked me to work sincerely and sing with all my heart. That was the icing on the cake. She asked me to sing during the coming Durga Puja festival. We talked about music for a long time. She shared some anecdotes on music and gave me a book as a gift for my father,” said the former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader who joined the TMC on September 18.
The two-time Lok Sabha member from Asansol in Bengal’s West Burdwan district announced on Sunday that he would go to Delhi on Wednesday and resign from the Parliament.
“My ‘Z’ category security has already been withdrawn. I am moving without central paramilitary force personnel since August,” Supriyo said while leaving Nabanna on Monday.
On a lighter note, the Bollywood singer-turned-politician said the chief minister advised him not to have commercially made puffed rice, a popular snack in Bengal, as these are laced with urea. “Didi said urea makes one gain weight. Like her, I also eat only traditionally made puffed rice and keep a can in my car,” said Supriyo.
It may be recalled that in May 2015, when he was a Union minister, Supriyo made news by accepting Mamata Banerjee’s invitation to have jhal-muri, a spicy puffed rice snack, from a roadside vendor near the Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata. The CM had offered him a lift in her car as both were heading for the governor house to attend an official dinner. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the Bengal capital on that day to inaugurate a Swachh Bharat mission project.
Hours after Supriyo met the Bengal CM on Monday afternoon, BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said, “The effect of the puffed rice he had with the chief minister six years ago can be seen now. Let him work well in the party he has chosen.”
Although the Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya on Sunday described his party’s tryst with Supriyo as “a closed chapter,” BJP leaders did not stop targeting the Asansol MP.
Ghosh called Supriyo a political tourist on Sunday and alleged that he left because he was not made a minister during the July reshuffle of the Union cabinet. Jagannath Sarkar, the MP from Ranaghat, on the other hand, alleged that Supriyo joined TMC to evade probe because he is involved in the coal and cattle smuggling case that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) are investigating.
Hours before the cabinet reshuffle, Supriyo was removed from the government where he served as minister of state for environment, forest and climate change. He wrote an emotional post on social media saying he was “asked to resign.”
This led to strong differences between Supriyo and Ghosh and it surfaced in comments the two made after Supriyo declared that he would quit politics and the Lok Sabha.
“I’m leaving...Alvida (farewell)...If you want to do social work, you can do it without being in politics...” Supriyo wrote on Facebook on July 31.
However, on August 2, he changed his decision and decided to stay in Parliament. “I have a constitutional responsibility,” Supriyo said after meeting BJP national president JP Nadda in Delhi.
Supriyo did not elaborate on the talks he had with Nadda but said he remained firm on his decision to quit politics. “It is my personal decision and I am not going to change it. I may move either to Kolkata or Mumbai. I will not engage in any political activity. People of Asansol have asked me to stay as their MP,” he said.
He also said that he would give up his security cover, the bungalow in Delhi and other facilities he is entitled to as a Lok Sabha member. “You may soon see me earning my living through other means, singing for example,” Supriyo told the media last month.
