By PTI
KOLKATA: As former Union minister Babul Supriyo’s name did not feature in the 20-member national working committee of the Trinamool Congress, veteran BJP leader Tathagata Roy on Sunday said he felt sorry for the singer-turned-politician and claimed that lack of patience is the reason for his ‘downfall’.
The former governor of Meghalaya and Tripura, however, did not directly name Supriyo who joined the TMC in September last year, weeks after he was dropped as a minister in a Cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Roy replied to a post by a Twitter user who said Supriyo did not find a place in the TMC’s panel announced on Saturday.
In his reaction, Supriyo, a former BJP MP, said he can patiently wait for bigger duty and wished that Roy live for more than 100 years so that he could see by himself the TMC leader’s political destiny.
“Feeling little sad. I used to love this boy. Had been to his house, had food, chatted with his father. This proves one thing. If you lose patience in politics, your downfall is inevitable. Had this stupid chap asked me for once!” Roy tweeted in Bengali.
TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday dissolved the party’s national office bearers’ panel, and formed a 20-member working committee packed with party veterans amid a growing rift between old-timers and Gen Next.
Supriyo, in his reply to Roy’s statement, posted a series of video messages asking him who told him about his “downfall”.
“Let me tell you I think I enjoy the confidence of my supreme leader Mamata Banerjee and am waiting for her command which I would follow to the best of my ability. For me any work for my organisation is important. Already I had been given some assignments and yes, I can wait patiently for bigger assignments, bigger duty,” he said.
He claimed that he did not get respect in the BJP despite rising to the challenges thrown at him.
The former Union minister said he had won from the Asansol Lok Sabha seat twice and did not protest when he was asked to contest from the Tollygunje assembly constituency in Kolkata, a stronghold of senior TMC leader Arup Biswas, knowing that stakes were not in his favour.
He was defeated from that seat.
Supriyo claimed he did not wish to remain in the BJP as a “slave” of the leadership and came out with his “head held high”.
“Like you (Roy), I did not bend myself to them (BJP central leadership) for plum postings or appointments,” Supriyo said.
In reaction to his statement, Roy who used to lash out at the BJP’s West Bengal leadership after the party’s poll debacle last year sarcastically tweeted Supriyo is making one comment after another.
