Singer-turned-politician, Babul Supriyo – a two-time MP and was fielded by the BJP during this year’s West Bengal Assembly polls has now called it quits, and announced his decision to leave politics. Supriyo had lost the recent assembly polls from the seat of Tollygunje by a margin of 50,000 votes.
Thereafter, Babul Supriyo was dropped from the Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Supriyo held the post of the Minister of State for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change. After being dropped from the cabinet, Babul Supriyo has been making cryptic comments which led many to believe that his exit from the BJP was imminent.
Supriyo, in an emotional post on Facebook, written in Bengali, bid “alvida (farewell)” to politics. “I am leaving…farewell,” he wrote. The leader had also written initially that he won’t be joining any other party, either the TMC, Congress or CPI(M) and that he is “a one team player”. Interestingly, within an hour of this post, Babul Supriyo made an edit and cut out the portion where he committed to not joining any other political party.
Read more: Babul Supriyo has been cut to size and rightly so!
“If you want to do social work, you can do it without being in politics…let’s organise myself a little first and then…” Supriyo also said he was also quitting as MP. Many remember Babul Supriyo’s ‘social work’ during the post poll violence unleashed by the ruling party and its goons in Bengal, when the MP had insinuated that him stepping out to help BJP’s workers and supporters might result in damage to his vehicle.
Less than a month after losing his ministry, Babul Supriyo has quit politics. Among the many indications that he did not belong, this is probably the best one.
— Ajit Datta (@ajitdatta) July 31, 2021
The things people do to save their cars.
— Sanbeer Singh Ranhotra (@SSanbeer) July 31, 2021
By making Babulnath Supriyo a minister, the BJP had 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 was entrusted with 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 showed him the exit door out of the cabinet, which is a positive beginning.
Soon after Supriyo tendered his resignation from the post of minister that day, he had put out a Facebook post saying that he was “made to resign”. However, he subsequently put out a clarification, reportedly after being scolded by the party, saying, “Asked to resign may not have been the best way to frame it” and thanked the PM for giving him a chance to serve “my country.”
For his cowardice and non-performance, Supriyo was removed from the cabinet. Now, having lost the ministry, he has shown himself the door out of the party. As of the moment this report was filed, the BJP was not heard to be in receipt of Babul’s official resignation letter or correspondence.