India / BJP's Supriyo edits FB post on political exit; removes 'won't join any other party'

New Delhi: Hours after posting the news of his exit from politics on Facebook, Babul Supriyo on Saturday edited the post a little bit, triggering speculation of whether his road to any other party remains open or not. In the original version of the post, the former Union minister specifically took the names of Trinamool, Congress and CPM and said he is not joining any other party. "I am confirming that no one has called me. Neither I am going anywhere. I am a one-team player. Have always supported one team Mohun Bagan, have done only BJP. That's it!!" he had written before taking this part out.

On Saturday, Babul Supriyo resigned from BJP, from the MP post and also from politics through a Facebook post. In the long post, he made the reasons behind his exit clear. Removal from the Union cabinet is one of the reasons, Babul Supriyo acknowledged. Apart from that, there was disagreement with Bengal BJP leadership, he said, without naming Dilip Ghosh.

'Clear gimmick': TMC says not giving any importance to Babul Supriyo

Though he did not modify the rest of the post where he took retirement from politics, the deletion of the crucial part is triggering speculations.

Bengal BJP leader Dilip Ghosh said he has not seen what someone writes on Facebook. "Has he resigned yet?" he asked.

Trinamool general secretary Kunal Ghosh termed Babul Supriyo's Facebook announcement as a gimmick and said Trinamool is not giving any importance to this. "Lok Sabha is in session, he must tender his resignation to the Speaker. Instead of it, he's using FB only to attract his Delhi leaders because he's now a dissident leader," Ghosh said.

On July 29, Babul Supriyo made a Facebook post in which he expressed the desire the leave politics. He wrote, "In 2018, I once tendered my resignation being disillusioned, but the party didn't accept it. At that time, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah encouraged me. But today, I am again thinking."

In his Saturday's Facebook post, Babul Supriyo made it clear why he didn't approach the party leadership. He said he had already talked about this to Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda, but they have discouraged him from quitting politics. Babul Supriyo wrote he does not have the audacity to again approach them which might be misinterpreted as his persistent bargaining for some post. "This is not the case. I hope they will understand me and forgive me," Babul wrote.