Cabinet 2.0: Babul Supriyo clarifies he was ‘not asked to resign’

A few hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet ministers' list was announced, Babul Supriyo took to social media to announce that he had resigned from the position of junior minister in the Environment Ministry.

However, in his first post, he said, “I have been asked to resign and I have!!” Later, he deleted the post and reposted the same news with a clarification.

Referring to the older post, he said, "Yes, when there is smoke, there must be a fire somewhere. Not being able to take phone calls of my friends in the media who care for me hence let me spell it out myself... Yes, I have resigned from the Council Of Ministers (As I had framed it earlier, 'Asked to resign' may not be the right way to put it).”

"I thank Hon'ble Prime Minister for giving me the privilege to serve my country as a Member of his Council of Ministers. I am extremely happy that I go today without a spot of corruption on me, having served my constituency with all my might and having enjoyed their confidence when Asansol voted me back as their MP once again, with triple the margin in 2019 again," Supriyo said in his Facebook post.

While the BJP MP expressed that he is “sad for himself”, he clarified that he was “not asked to resign”.

"My bestest of wishes to my colleagues, whose names I can't spell out but by now everyone is aware, will be sworn in as Hon'ble ministers from Bengal. I am surely SAD for myself but very HAPPY for them. More power to all of them," Supriyo added.