State BJP leaders claimed in private on Saturday that although former minister and party MP Babul Supriyo’s defection to Trinamul had embarrassed the party for now, in the long term the singer-turned-politician’s exit would send the right message to its rank and file.

“A celebrity quitting will make headlines and embarrass the party struggling to cope with the (Assembly) election results,” said a BJP insider.

“But in the longer run, we will gain. It’s clear to everyone that Babul quit the party after failing to bargain with the central leadership after he was asked to resign from the cabinet. The fact that our party doesn’t allow leaders to bargain is a message that must trickle down the ranks,” he added, narrating the chronology of events since the Union July shuffle in the Union ministry.

Supriyo, then the junior environment minister, had to give up his berth and he didn’t hide his displeasure. He had tweeted on July 8, the day he resigned: “I am really sad for myself.” He deleted the post later. In July-end, in a Facebook post the singer-politician announced he was bidding “alvida” (farewell), signalling his decision to quit the BJP and Parliament.

Although a BJP MP since 2014, Supriyo has had differences with the state party unit, especially its president Dilip Ghosh, who had accused him of not taking interest in the BJP’s organisational matters.

Several BJP insiders said that Supriyo’s long absence from the state during the first phase of Covid and after the Assembly polls cost him dear.

According to a source, reports of Supriyo’s “reluctance to stand by party workers under attack” reached the Delhi leadership that cost him his ministerial berth. “Instead of changing himself, he tried to bargain with the central leadership after the reshuffle,” said another source.

“One day he called up Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and said he wanted to meet him to tender his resignation as an MP.… As the news reached Amit-ji (Shah), he made it clear that Babul was free to resign. When the Speaker’s office contacted him to know when he would come to tender his resignation, he sought some time,” said a BJP source, adding that Supriyo had been upset on learning that he would have to vacate his sprawling residence in Lutyens Delhi.

He apparently met party president J.P. Nadda and they agreed he would not resign as an MP, but distance himself from politics.