The former BJP minister of state for environment, forest and climate change, Babul Supriyo was considered one of BJP’s strongest leaders in Bengal, but this was before the union minister lost in the state assembly election from Kolkata’s Tollyganj Assembly seat against Aroop Biswas, who was the incumbent MLA of the seat. Since then, the singer-turned-politician was found missing from the central leadership.
Babul Supriyo had been a minister in the first cabinet of the Modi government since 2014. Despite being a minister and carrying a huge responsibility for BJP in West Bengal, Babul Supriyo lost the recently conducted assembly polls. Although BJP’s performance in the polls was commendable, they performed a lot better than their previous Assembly polls in West Bengal but yet Babul Supriyo did not win. His performance shows he cannot strengthen or contribute to the party. Also, he has also been involved in a lot of controversies.
BJP always goes by the rule – Nation first, party second and individual last. But, Supriyo is clearly violating the golden rule that made the BJP the largest political party, by putting his reputation before that of the party. Extensively reported by TFI, when Samajwadi Party leader Jaya Bachchan, who was deployed by Akhilesh Yadav in West Bengal came to campaign for TMC and criticised the BJP. Supriyo said, “I welcome her (Jaya Bachchan) in West Bengal. Though I do not have family relations with her, she knows me very well. She will speak against BJP but she will never say anything against me.”
She asked the people of the Tollyganj seat to vote for the TMC candidate and criticised BJP, but Babul Supriyo is happy and assured that she had not said anything about him.
Back in March, yet again he was stuck in a controversy where a video, which went viral, showed the singer-turned BJP leader purportedly slapping the man who had repeatedly asked him to start serious campaigning on the field instead of posing before TV cameras and giving byte as reported by the New Indian Express.
Read More: Babul Supriyo thinks he is bigger than the BJP
PM Modi’s cabinet has been expanded in which many new faces have been included this time, as well as many old ministers have been shown the way out of the cabinet. Among the names taken out, Union Minister Babul Supriyo’s name is also included, whose chances of leaving were already very high.
By making Babulnath Supriyo a minister, the BJP hoped that it would take advantage of his popular face in the party, but Babul was immersed in a different world. Supriyo could not contribute or complete a task he got in the last seven years instead he always got involved in controversies further damaging the party’s image, as a result of which PM Modi has now shown him the exit door out of the cabinet, which is a positive beginning.