Kolkata, Sep 18 (UNI) Former union minister Babul Supriyo on Saturday after joining the Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress in presence of her nephew and party's national general secretary Abhisekh Banerjee said he would quit his MP seat of Asansol, which he won in 2014 and 2019 on BJP ticket.
" I would meet Mamata Banerjee on Monday and then probably the next day I would quit the MP seat," the singer turned politician told reporters immediately after joining the West Bengal ruling party in presence of Mr Banerjee and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O' Brien in the city.
However, his deserting the saffron brigade happened at a time when BJP candidate advocate Priyanka Tibrewal is contesting TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee in the Bhawanipur assembly by-poll on September 30.
Forty-year-old Tibrewal, who is in the limelight for for her legal acumen and won a court battle in which Calcutta high court directed the CBI to probe post-poll violence across Bengal, was advocating Babul Supriyo for his legal cases.
Incidentally Babul Supriyo was one of the starred campaigners for Tibrewal in Bhawanipur.
“Everything happened in the past few days after a meeting with TMC MP Derek O’Brien, a long friend of mine. Let me also make it clear that it is not necessary to inform any big or small leader whether they want to put out a list of star campaigners or not," Babul Supriyo reacted to a question.
" Many Congratulations to Priyanka Tibrewal, BJP. She is a spirited girl & fought all my Legal Battles (Successfully) in Politics since 2014 with a lot of grit," Babul Supriyo wrote on his twitter on September 10, the day BJP named Tibrewal to contest Bhawanipur against Mamata Banerjee, who has to win the seat to remain in power.
Two-time MP from Asansol and former union minister in the Narendra Modi government Babul Supriyo was unhappy since he was dropped from the Modi ministry during the last reshuffle.
Babul Supriyo said he had “wholeheartedly" decided to quit politics for good but was convinced by the party (TMC) as “Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee brought something exciting to the table."
" Today in presence of national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and RS MP Derek O"Brien, former union minister and sitting MP Babul Supriyo joined the Trinamool Family" an AITC
statement said. " We take this opportunity to extend a very warm welcome to him."
When asked what led him to switch over to the ruling party, Babul Supriyo said " new opportunity to work for Bengal under Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee,"
UNI PC KK