Kolkata: From being a founder member of Trinamool Congress and chief whip of its Parliamentary Party to a berth in the Union cabinet as a minister of state, Sudip Bandopadhyay has come a long way.
A three-time Lok Sabha member, Sudip quit his Assembly seat of Bowbazar and made his maiden entry into the Lok Sabha on a Trinamool ticket in 1998 to become the party's chief whip in Parliament.
The 59-year-old leader had left Congress after Mamata split the party and formed the Trinamool Congress in 1998.
Before joining Trinamool, he was the general secretary of the West Bengal unit of Congress and state youth Congress president from 1972 to 1976. He was a member of the AICC for 25 years from 1972.
But ever since he joined Trinamool, his relationship with Mamata saw many ups and downs. Then an MP from Calcutta Northwest, Sudip fell out with Mamata in 2003 following his attempts to bag a berth in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cabinet allegedly without her approval and for hobnobbing with BJP.
Mamata and Sudip turned bitter rivals when he was on the verge of being inducted into the Vajpayee cabinet then.
Mamata, who was a partner in the then NDA government, derailed his chances, saying she was not consulted and accused the BJP of breaking the coalition dharma.
Trinamool expelled him in 2004 after he contested the Lok Sabha election as Congress-backed Independent candidate from the Calcutta North. Both Sudip and the Trinamool candidate lost, paving the way for a CPI-M victory.
He joined his parent party on August 20, 2004 describing it as a 'homecoming'. He rejoined the Trinamool along with his followers months before the Lok Sabha election in 2009 dealing a blow to the state party.
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