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Why BJP is holding parleys with a dejected Babul Supriyo who ‘quit’ politics

Babul, who said he is not joining any party, later edited this out from the FB post

babul-supriyo-pti [File] BJP leader Babul Supriyo | PTI

Ek gocha rajanigandha hate niye bollam, chollam (Praying with a handful of tuberose, I said goodbye)

Babul Supriyo turned to the timeless music of Hemanta Mukherjee (aka Hemant Kumar) when he decided to ‘quit’ politics. But ever-since his Facebook post along with the lines from this song went viral, activity has intensified in BJP offices in Delhi and Kolkata.

As the party’s Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh put it, ‘it was a jolt from the blue’. BJP national president J.P. Nadda may not understand the meaning of Mukherjee’s lyrics which Babul posted on Facebook, but all Bengali BJP leaders in Delhi and Kolkata sat up and took note. The song has a line that particularly caught their eye— “Mone koro ami ek mrito kono jonaki, sara rat alo diye bollam, chollam (Consider me a dead firefly who gave you light throughout the night and then said goodbye).”

Nadda called Babul immediately at his residence on the night of August 1. Babul had mentioned that he arrived at the decision after talking to Nadda and Shah, who had asked him not to hang his boots. Though he first mentioned in the post that he would not join any political party, he deleted that part later. This further raised many questions. Was he in touch with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, against whom he had fought a bitter battle for the last seven years? A senior BJP leader said: “Yes, that is the case.”

Nadda has held three rounds of meetings with Babul in the last 24 hours. Babul has sought time till Tuesday to reach a final conclusion. He might change his decision. But he has proved to the opposition that he is a rebel within the BJP. There are mixed opinions about him within the BJP. Some consider him very aggressive, and not a disciplined party solider. This aggressiveness, however, helped him win twice the MP seat from Asansol. This correspondent had the opportunity to travel with him on both the occasions and saw how much bravery he showed while entering the Trinamool Congress’s strongholds in the coal-belt in Jamuria, Barabani and in many places of Asansol constituency. He was booked with several false charges and detained in the police station. He himself gave musical twists to his political slogans and sang them all. He connected with the local youth and assured them he would fight for them always.


In the 2021 election, Babul was moved out of Asansol and was asked to contest from Tollygunge in Kolkata. The BJP was desperate to make a footprint in Kolkata and Modi-Shah understood his clout in the entertainment world in Kolkata. Babul had publicly opposed the inclusion of TMC heavyweight Jitendra Tiwari of Asansol into the BJP. Shah did not take it mildly and took a strong exception as he himself had given the nod for Tiwari’s inclusion. Both Babul and Tiwari lost the elections in their respective seats.

An outspoken Babul did not hide the fact that he took on political ‘sanyas’ after being dropped as a minister in Modi’s council of ministers recently. Modi, who wanted to reward those who performed well in the Bengal assembly polls, inducted four people—Nisith Pramanik, Shantanu Thakur, Subhash Sarkar and John Barla—as junior ministers. Both Babul and Debasree Chaudhuri were dropped. Babul’s loyalists found it unfair. They wanted to know what the yardstick was—performance as a minister or winning the election? “A winning leader could be a disaster as a minister. Babul Supriyo was not an inefficient minister,” said a leader close to him.

Babul has done a lot of development work in Asansol by releasing funds from his MPLADS fund, and as the urban development junior minister, brought the East-West Metro project to Kolkata. The project is yet unfinished and Babul decided to depart.

But as the lyrics of Mukherjee’s song go, “ekhanei golper sesh noy (The story is not over yet)”, Babul has been bargaining hard with the BJP’s national president for a face-saver. Sources said the BJP would now somehow convince him to change his mind and would accommodate him in a respectable position even if he is not reinducted as a minister. He may have lost the election this time, but won in 2014 when the BJP was struggling to gain a foothold in Bengal. Modi, during the campaign trail, had told people of Asansol: “Mujhe Babul chaiye (I want Babul from you).” The BJP may not be able to overlook these factors yet.

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