A day after announcing his decision to quit politics former Union Minister and Asansol BJP MP Babul Supriyo on Sunday clarified that he was not joining any other party. His decision came hours after his talks with BJP national president JP Nadda, sources said.
His announcement of not joining any other outfit “Trinamool Congress, Congress or CPI(M)” comes almost in tandem with a section of the TMC leadership making it clear that they “will not accept a leader who has no material political value at the moment.”
Saying that any person willing to join politics “should have the stamina to hold out” in the game senior TMC leader and MP Saugato Roy on Sunday said that “the TMC is not interested to take someone in with a diminished value,” adding “he is neither Minister nor a winning candidate … though he is still an MP from Asansol he lost the Assembly elections by a huge margin of 50,000 votes.”
On his decision not to join any other party Supriyo wrote on the Facebook that in his earlier post stating his desire to quit politics “a very important line got erased for some reason. Hence, reiterating that I am not joining any other political party.”
Bidding “Goodbye” to politics earlier on Saturday he wrote, “Alvida! I am not going to any political party, TMC, Congress, CPI(M) nobody has called me … I am not going anywhere … one does not need to be in politics to do social work.”
Speaking to the Bengali media the actor-singer-turned-politician on Sunday expressed his displeasure about the way his decision to quit was received by the Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh. He said “the uncouth remark that was made by him was undesirable.” On his decision to quit politics Ghosh had earlier said that “let the aunt put on a moustache and then we will call the person uncle.”
Meanwhile, in another development that could further add to BJP’s embarrassment three party MLAs on Sunday skipped an organizational meeting called by Dilip Ghosh and attended by Union Minister Gajendra Singh Sekhawat, sources said. The meeting was held at Bongaon in North 24 Parganas.
Three MLAs Ashok Kirtaniya, Biswajit Das and Subrata Thakur skipped the Sunday’s meeting, party sources said. While State BJP leaders downplayed the development speculations were rife regarding their political future. While Kirtania said he was unwell, Das said he could not attend the meeting because he had some personal work.
The three MLAs are from Bongaon North, Bagda and Gaighata Assembly segments which fall in Bongaon Parliamentary constituency currently held by the BJP.