KOLKATA: Weeks after he announced his decision to quit politics, Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) member of parliament (MP) from Asansol, Babul Supriyo today joined All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) in presence of the party's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien.

TMC party tweeted about Suprio's entry into the party, "Today, in the presence of National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee and RS MP Derek O'Brien, former Union minister and sitting MP Babul Supriyo joined the Trinamool family."  

After being dropped from the Modi government, in a cabinet reshuffle in July, Supriyo had first announced retirement from politics, however, after meeting BJP chief JP Nadda he had claimed that he would not participate in any political activity but work for the betterment of his constituency of Asansol. 

When he was asked the reason for his decision to quit politics, Supriyo had said, "Is there any link to the ministerial post that I lost? Yes, there is. To some extent, there is a link." Supriyo, a former playback singer and actor served as the Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in the union cabinet before being dropped in July 2021.

Although Supriyo's joining TMC has taken the BJP state leadership by surprise, most of them said that, his quitting the party will have no impact since Supriyo does not have large ground support. 

Meanwhile, TMC leader Kunal Ghosh has said that many BJP leaders were in touch with the TMC leadership and after Supriyo joined today, many others might follow.