BJP hits back at Babul Supriyo for his 'no Bengali in Cabinet' jibe, questions his performance as union minister

New Delhi: A day after newly inducted minister in the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government Babul Supriyo accused the Centre of not picking a Bengali as a cabinet minister in the last eight years, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday (August 4, 2022) hit back at the former party leader and questioned his performance as the union minister. Reacting sharply to Supriyo's allegation, BJP national Vice President Dilip Ghosh said that there is no point playing the "Bengali card".

"BJP is a party with discipline. People are allotted positions based on their capabilities. The workers of the party are happy with it. People from Bengal have been the President, Speaker, it just needs the capability. I think Babul Supriyo is good only for the minister in the state," Ghosh, an MP from Medinipur, said.

"He was a Bengali and he had been a cabinet minister for seven years, how did he perform as the minister? Everybody knows about his performance. So there is no point playing the `Bengali card`. The Bengalis have to hang their heads in shame today. It is only because of the TMC," he alleged.

Slamming Supriyo for the allegation of not inducting a Bengali as a cabinet minister for the eight years at the Centre, Ghosh said that he did not make such statements when he was a minister at the Centre.

"Such a statement had not come when he was the minister at the Centre. Why make such statements? Everything was alright for him then. He left the BJP as he was removed from the ministerial post," the BJP national vice president added. 

Will give my best to make '2nd innings' brighter: Babul Supriyo

After taking oath on Wednesday, West Bengal's new Tourism and Information Technology Minister Babul Supriyo said that he will give his all to make his new innings brighter than the one he had as a central minister in the Narendra Modi-led BJP government.

Supriyo, who crossed over from the BJP to the Trinamool Congress in 2021, thanked TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for giving him her support.

"I really have no idea about this coincidence (August 3). Yes, life has definitely come full circle. It was last year in August when I left (BJP), and today I am sworn in as a minister of the West Bengal government," he said.

"It's a poetic justice that came through Didi's (Banerjee's) hand. Because I had quit politics, and it was she who had encouraged me, infused courage in me and nominated me as a candidate for the Ballygunge constituency and then the entire party supported me," Supriyo said.

Sometime after he was dropped from the Union cabinet during a reshuffle last year, Supriyo had announced that he was quitting politics but was later persuaded against resigning as a Lok Sabha member. However, the singer-turned-politician joined TMC in September.

"I will work hard for the development of the people of West Bengal. I will give everything whatever I have learnt from my earlier experiences as a central minister and make my second innings brighter," he said.

Supriyo, who won the Asansol Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 polls by a huge margin of 1.97 lakh votes, questioned why a Bengali MP would not be made a full-time Union minister despite giving his everything for the party. He was a Union minister of state.

"I might have made some mistakes but I had given everything of mine (as the central minister) since 2014. I believe I was ill-treated. Why can't anyone from West Bengal be a full-time Union minister? I did not take it lying down," he said.

Supriyo is among the eight new faces in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet, who were sworn in at the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday amid TMC facing a crisis over the arrest of senior minister Partha Chatterjee by the ED in the school jobs scam last month.

(With agency inputs)