KOLKATA — The Trinamool Congress (TMC)’s candidate from Kolkata’s Ballygunge Assembly constituency and ex-Union minister, Babul Supriyo, expressed apprehension Tuesday that his erstwhile party BJP would allegedly use the central agencies like the CBI and the ED against him ahead of the April 12 bypolls, reported The Indian Express.
Interacting with media persons, Supriyo said he had to toe the BJP’s “communal line” when he was its MP and that he was then also forced to support the BJP leaders’ “hate speeches”.
“I have a clean report card. As a minister I entered (Parliament) wearing a white shirt and came out wearing the same shirt. The BJP could not maintain their policy of ‘Na khaunga, na khane dunga’. Now they will surely use CBI and ED against me. I have come to know that Suvendu Adhikari (Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly) is pleading with Union Home Minister Amit Shah to immediately use ED and CBI against me to defeat me in the election,” Supriyo alleged.
In September last year, Supriyo quit the BJP and joined the TMC, two months after he was removed from the Narendra Modi ministry as part of its major rejig. Subsequently, he also resigned as the saffron party MP from Asansol from where he had won the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee named Supriyo as the party’s candidate from Ballygunge seat, which had fallen vacant after the demise of veteran party leader Subrata Mukherjee.
Taking on noted actor Naseeruddin Shah for backing his niece and CPM candidate from Ballygunge, Saira Shah Halim, Supriyo said, “It is acceptable that an uncle would support his niece in an electoral battle. But he has used one or two strong words against me. It does not behove an artist of his stature to fish in troubled waters. He is being a hypocrite by saying that he is sharing a personal message when in reality he is giving a political message. I would also remind him that I am not a ‘dalbadlu’. I had quit politics and also resigned as an MP. It is the magnanimity of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that she gave me this opportunity to work for the people again by seeing my previous report card as an MP.”
In a video message to Ballygunge voters over social media, Shah says, “The choice before voters is a clear one. Would you like your representative to be a caring, compassionate and committed person who will work for you, or would you prefer a turncoat opportunist who is also a serial hate-monger?”
Referring to the local Left workers’ ‘No Vote to Babul’ campaign, Supriyo said: “This would have no impact on the election. But I have a past. When I was with the BJP, I had to toe the party line. One cannot revolt against his party all the time. I had to unwillingly support hate speeches of our leaders. I could not defend such speeches but I could not speak out against them as well. Whenever any communal remarks were made, I had to support them. I had to support the issues such as NRC and CAA.”
Supriyo was accused of inciting violence in Asansol during the Ram Navami celebrations in 2018, in which the son of a local Imam was killed. Following the declaration of Supriyo as the TMC candidate from Ballygunge, the Bengal Imams Association had protested against the decision. With Ballygunge accounting for over 60 per cent minority voters, there are speculations that Supriyo might not get their support despite joining the TMC.
“The question they (minority voters) had about me are not unjustified. It is a fact that I was associated with the BJP which had indulged in polarisation before last year’s Assembly polls. Being a member of the party at that time, I was also a part of that. But it is also a fact that if I had not got the support of minority voters, I would not have retained my seat in Asansol in 2019,” he said.