Tag: West Bengal cabinet

  • Babul Supriyo: From singer to BJP’s poster boy to Mamata’s minister

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Babul Supriyo, who was on Wednesday sworn in as a minister in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet, has had a roller-coaster ride, from being a popular playback singer to BJP’s poster boy in West Bengal to joining the TMC government.

    Supriyo started off as a city banker who rose to be a BJP minister at the Centre after a chance meeting with yoga guru Ramdev, but suddenly found himself out in the cold after losing an assembly election from Tollygunge last year by a huge margin of 50,000 votes.

    However, Supriyo bounced back to win the prestigious Ballygunge constituency in April for his new party – the Trinamool Congress – which he joined in September 2021 in a surprise move.

    Born in West Bengal’s Uttarpara as Supriya Baral in 1970, he changed his name to Babul Supriyo while trying his luck as a Bollywood singer after quitting his banking job.

    After a successful stint as a Hindi playback singer, Supriyo entered politics in 2014, getting a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha elections for the BJP from West Bengal on Ramdev’s recommendation.

    He surprised everyone by defeating TMC’s Dola Sen from the industrial town of Asansol and was made the Union Minister of State for Urban Development.

    Two years later, he was shifted to the Ministry for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises during a reshuffle in July 2016.

    In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Supriyo’s winning streak continued when he defeated TMC’s Moon Moon Sen by a huge margin of 1.97 lakh votes.

    This time the Bollywood singer was named the Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

    Supriyo was again pitted in April 2021, as the BJP candidate for Tollygunge Assembly constituency, which has as its centerpiece the movie studio known as Tollywood, against three-time TMC MLA Aroop Biswas.

    The two-time BJP MP had then promised he would end Biswas’s “dictatorship” in Tollywood.

    However, this time round his streak of luck seemed to have run out.

    Supriyo lost by over 50,000 votes.

    Things also started going sour in his relationship with BJP’s top leadership and he was eventually dropped from the Union Cabinet.

    The perturbed 50-year-old singer, whose instinctive first reaction was that he would “quit” politics after being dropped from the ministry, ultimately joined the TMC after party supremo Mamata Banerjee and general secretary Abhishek Banerjee extended an offer to him.

    ““It was with great disillusionment that I had announced that I would quit politics. A great opportunity has been extended by Didi (Mamata Banerjee) and Abhishek Banerjee and I am happy to accept that. I was expecting something more after seven years as a Union Minister of State. Then differences started growing with the party,”” Supriyo had said after joining the TMC last year.

    Though his victory in Ballygunge earlier this year was marred by a campaign of “no vote for Supriyo” undertaken by some groups in the constituency, Supriyo, true to his roller coaster style won the seat by over 20,000 votes against his CPI(M) rival Saira Shah Halim, who emerged in the second position.

    Interestingly, his former party’s Keya Ghosh came a distant third.

    KOLKATA: Babul Supriyo, who was on Wednesday sworn in as a minister in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet, has had a roller-coaster ride, from being a popular playback singer to BJP’s poster boy in West Bengal to joining the TMC government.

    Supriyo started off as a city banker who rose to be a BJP minister at the Centre after a chance meeting with yoga guru Ramdev, but suddenly found himself out in the cold after losing an assembly election from Tollygunge last year by a huge margin of 50,000 votes.

    However, Supriyo bounced back to win the prestigious Ballygunge constituency in April for his new party – the Trinamool Congress – which he joined in September 2021 in a surprise move.

    Born in West Bengal’s Uttarpara as Supriya Baral in 1970, he changed his name to Babul Supriyo while trying his luck as a Bollywood singer after quitting his banking job.

    After a successful stint as a Hindi playback singer, Supriyo entered politics in 2014, getting a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha elections for the BJP from West Bengal on Ramdev’s recommendation.

    He surprised everyone by defeating TMC’s Dola Sen from the industrial town of Asansol and was made the Union Minister of State for Urban Development.

    Two years later, he was shifted to the Ministry for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises during a reshuffle in July 2016.

    In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Supriyo’s winning streak continued when he defeated TMC’s Moon Moon Sen by a huge margin of 1.97 lakh votes.

    This time the Bollywood singer was named the Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

    Supriyo was again pitted in April 2021, as the BJP candidate for Tollygunge Assembly constituency, which has as its centerpiece the movie studio known as Tollywood, against three-time TMC MLA Aroop Biswas.

    The two-time BJP MP had then promised he would end Biswas’s “dictatorship” in Tollywood.

    However, this time round his streak of luck seemed to have run out.

    Supriyo lost by over 50,000 votes.

    Things also started going sour in his relationship with BJP’s top leadership and he was eventually dropped from the Union Cabinet.

    The perturbed 50-year-old singer, whose instinctive first reaction was that he would “quit” politics after being dropped from the ministry, ultimately joined the TMC after party supremo Mamata Banerjee and general secretary Abhishek Banerjee extended an offer to him.

    ““It was with great disillusionment that I had announced that I would quit politics. A great opportunity has been extended by Didi (Mamata Banerjee) and Abhishek Banerjee and I am happy to accept that. I was expecting something more after seven years as a Union Minister of State. Then differences started growing with the party,”” Supriyo had said after joining the TMC last year.

    Though his victory in Ballygunge earlier this year was marred by a campaign of “no vote for Supriyo” undertaken by some groups in the constituency, Supriyo, true to his roller coaster style won the seat by over 20,000 votes against his CPI(M) rival Saira Shah Halim, who emerged in the second position.

    Interestingly, his former party’s Keya Ghosh came a distant third.

  • Cabinet reshuffle on cards, 4-5 new faces likely to get inducted: Mamata 

    After Partha Chatterjee was relieved of his ministerial duties, following his recent arrest by the Enforcement Directorate, portfolios held by him were taken over by the TMC boss.

  • West Bengal Cabinet​ approves three schemes promised in TMC poll manifesto

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The West Bengal Cabinet on Monday gave its approval for implementation of a monthly income support scheme for eligible families and two other programmes promised in the election manifesto of the Trinamool Congress, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.

    The Cabinet also gave the green signal to introduce a new credit card scheme for all eligible students to pursue higher education, as well as the programme of free doorstep delivery of monthly ration to 1.5 crore households.

    A proposal to recruit 2,500 people in the Kolkata Police force has also got the go-ahead from the Cabinet, Banerjee said.

    “It’s not even one month since the government was formed. Today, we have got approval from the Cabinet for the scheme under which female heads of general category families will be provided with Rs 500 monthly while SC/ST families will get Rs 1,000.

    “The Cabinet also approved the Student Credit Card and the Duare Ration (ration at doorstep) scheme also,” she told reporters at the state secretariat.

    Banerjee was sworn in as the chief minister on May 2 after her party came to power in the state for the third time in a row.

    The basic income support scheme will benefit around 1.6 crore families.

    According to the credit card scheme, it will have a credit limit of Rs 10 lakh with an interest rate of only 4 per cent and easy repayment options so that students do not have to depend on their parents to pursue higher studies.

    The party manifesto had also promised that under the ‘Khadya Sathi’ scheme, 1.5 crore families will get free doorstep delivery of monthly ration.

    Banerjee said that a task force under Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay was constituted to look into the procedure, implementing policy and monitoring of the three schemes.

    The task force will also have the home secretary, the finance secretary and representatives of the education and women and child welfare departments, she said.

    “It will require some time to launch these programmes. We have to plan them very meticulously,” she said.