KOLLATA: The Trinamool Congress on Sunday announced names of former Union ministers Shatrughan Sinha and Babul Supriyo as its candidates for the by-poll in Asansol Lok Sabha and Ballygunge assembly seats respectively on April 12. Sinha had quit the BJP in 2019 and Supriyo in 2021.
“Happy to announce on behalf of the All India Trinamool Congress that Sri Shatrughan Sinha, former Union minister and famed actor, will be our candidate in Lok Sabha by-election from Asansol. Sri Babul Supriyo, former Union minister and noted singer, will be our candidate in Vidhansabha by-election from Ballygunge,” TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stated in a tweet.
The poll in Asansol was necessitated after Supriyo resigned as the constituency’s MP October last year, a month after he had quit the BJP and joined the TMC.
Ballygunge assembly seat fell vacant after TMC minister Subrata Mukherjee died of cardiac arrest in November last year.
The singer-turned-politician was the only sitting MPs among 18 BJP lawmakers elected in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls who defected to the TMC. In July last year, Supriyo had announced that he had quit active politics after he was dropped as Union minister from PM Modi’s cabinet.
Supriyo’s political career was in question after he was not fielded in any of the four Assembly constituencies — Dinhata, Shantipur, Khardah and Gosaba — where by-elections were held on October 30 last year. The TMC had snatched two of the seats, Dinhata and Shantipur, whch were won by the BJP in the 2021 assembly elections.
“Supriyo kept quite since he joined the TMC. We were not sure what would be his political fate. Since the chief minister has announced his name as a candidate from Ballygunge, it seems, Supriyo is all set to begin his new active political innings in our party,” said a TMC leader.
“She (Mamata) is desperate to wrest the Lok Sabha seat from the saffron camp. Aiming for victory in Asansol, which has considerable number of non-Bengali voters who are believed to be BJP’s strong vote-bank, Mamata played a smart card by fielding Sinha,” said a senior TMC leader.
Supriyo, in response, thanked Banerjee for providing him with the opportunity to serve people.
"I want to thank Didi for allowing me to serve the people of the state. I am grateful to her and would work for the development of the state," Supriyo told PTI.
The former BJP MP had joined the TMC last year, just months after he was dropped as a minister following a union ministry reshuffle.
Sinha, however, could not be reached for comment.
Speculation was rife that the actor-turned-politician would be joining the TMC, as he had heaped praise on Banerjee after last year's assembly polls.
'Bihari babu', as Sinha is often referred to, had said back then, "Politics is an art of possibility."
A popular Bollywood hero of the yesteryears, Sinha had joined the BJP in the early 80s when it was a party of two MPs and served as its star campaigner during the Vajpayee-L K Advani era.
He was a union minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee ministry when Banerjee was the railway minister.
The two-term BJP MP from Patna Sahib later walked out of the BJP over differences with the present leadership.
He joined the Congress and entered the poll fray from the same constituency in the 2019 polls but lost to former union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Sinha had joined Banerjee's mega anti-BJP conclave at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata before the 2019 parliamentary polls when he was still an MP of the saffron camp.
(With PTI Inputs)