Bengal tourism minister Babul Supriyo on Thursday claimed that the BJP’s supposed war against corruption must begin “at home”, and that raids by central investigating agencies on the residences of several BJP leaders would reveal stacks of “huge cash”.
Supriyo’s claims come at a time the Centre stands repeatedly accused of misusing its agencies to stifle the voices of dissent and corner Opposition parties. The Ballygunge MLA of the Trinamul Congress had been a member of the Narendra Modi cabinet and a BJP MP till 2021.
“Both of us (Supriyo and Shatrughan Sinha, Trinamul MP from Asansol who was formerly in the BJP) can easily name a ‘few’ BJP/Netas who, if raided by BJP’s CBI & ED, won’t find a place to hide & won’t know where to hide their huge cash,” Supriyo tweeted.
Asked about his claims, Supriyo clarified that revealing the BJP’s secrets to the public or to Trinamul had never been his motive, nor had he ever been asked to do so by the party he was now part of. But the eradication of corruption that the BJP proudly boasts of must have branched from a similar exercise within the party itself, he claimed.
“If the honourable Prime Minister and the BJP’s actual goal is to fight against corruption, they must have begun by cleaning their homes first. Instead, they are targeting Opposition parties, thereby forcing the central agencies to lose their credibility,” said Supriyo.
His latest tussle with the BJP was prompted by a statement from the party’s Asansol South MLA Agnimitra Paul. Paul, in a television interview on Wednesday, had alleged that Supriyo’s politics was for personal gains and that he had betrayed Modi and the people of Asansol.
Hitting back, Supriyo called the BJP a party of traitors, or gaddar, something Mamata Banerjee repeatedly uses to refer to the saffron camp.
“Yes, I loyally did my Political Duties for my erstwhile ‘GaddarParty’ & fiercely too, didn’t make gold frm milk but worked frm heart hence Asansol chose me again by thrice the margin, 2lac in 2019, I left &BJP lost by 3lacs!! The ‘despo’ did nothing in Asansol apart from Politics,” Supriyo tweeted.
He also claimed that the two of them were good friends beyond politics and Paul should have respected that before accusing him falsely. According to Supriyo, he was the one who brought Paul to politics.
Paul put out a series of tweets reacting to Supriyo’s allegations.
“SUCH CONTRADICTIONS PREVAILS IN YOUR POLITICAL LIES BabulSuprio betrayed @narendramodi betrayed Bjp workers & betrayed the people of Asansol The person who spoke against the atrocities of @MamataOfficial is now praising her all for PERSONAL AGENDA I stand by my statement,” she posted.
During the 2021 Assembly polls, Supriyo was one of the four BJP MPs who were fielded to contest. Supriyo was fielded from Tollygunge in Calcutta. He lost the seat to Trinamul’s Aroop Biswas by a margin of 50,080 votes.
