Former junior Union minister Babul Supriyo’s defection to the Trinamul Congress dominated the campaign for the Bhowanipore bypoll on Sunday with the BJP seeking to downplay his importance and Trinamul claiming that more leaders would desert the saffron camp soon.

“He (Supriyo) is a political tourist. Going to Trinamul is an emotional outburst (for him)..… Those who cannot settle themselves down in one place will never be able to settle anywhere,” Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said on the sidelines of a meeting in the Bhowanipore Assembly segment on Sunday.

“Thousands, lakhs of leaders and workers had joined us, coming from Trinamul, before the election. Did that stop Trinamul from winning? Likewise, even in this case, his departure will make no difference to the BJP,” he added.

The BJP had named Supriyo as the party’s one of 20 star campaigners for Priyanka Tibrewal, its candidate for the bypoll. The Asansol MP had announced earlier that he would not participate in the campaign.

Asked at a news conference on Sunday if he would campaign for chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the Bhowanipore candidate of his new political party, Supriyo hinted that he was not keen on that either. “Priyanka is like a sister to me. She fought several cases for me. We know our families as well. I hope my party (Trinamul) will spare me this embarrassment. She is a fighter,” said Supriyo.

“But does Mamata Banerjee even need me to campaign for her in Bhowanipore? I don’t think so,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Tibrewal had said Supriyo was virtually a sibling to her.

At the news conference organised by Trinamul, which Supriyo had declared on Saturday would be a tell-all, he opted for sarcasm or silence on certain questions. Some of the key questions were why he had quit the BJP, what ailed the party in Bengal and what Trinamul had offered him, which he, by his own admission, couldn’t refuse.

Minister Firhad Hakim, who was campaigning in Bhowanipore on Sunday, said: “Why only Babul Supriyo? Many, many others will join Trinamul now because the BJP has no future in Bengal.”

“Even the likes of him (Dilip Ghosh) are keen to defect,” he added. “Slowly, but surely, they will have no importance in India either…. The BJP is a party of madmen. They can’t be allowed to run the country any longer. Those who are slowly realising that are abandoning ship.”