Kolkata, Jul 12 (IANS): Sudip Bandopadhyay, a founding member of the Trinamool Congress who was Tuesday appointed minister of state for health and family welfare, has switched between the Congress and the Trinamool a couple of times.

The three-time Lok Sabha member was expelled from the Congress on the same day as Mamata Banerjee in 1997. He 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 the lower house of parliament, a position he still holds.

Bandopadhyay fell out with Banerjee after he hobnobbed with the BJP-led NDA government at the centre for a ministerial berth. Banerjee accused him of trying to break the party to fulfil his ministerial ambitions.

In 2004, Bandopadhyay was denied a Trinamool candidate but jumped into the fray as a Congress backed independent in Kolkata North West. He was expelled from Trinamool, and also lost the polls, but months later he formally joined the Congress.

Subsequently, he returned to the Trinamool in December 2008 and won the newly formed Kolkata North Lok Sabha seat in 2009 with a whopping margin.

Known for his initiative for beautification of the ghats on the banks of the Ganges in Kolkata, as also for reducing the pollution of the river, 58-year-old Bandopadhyay is a four-time legislator in West Bengal.

Born in Baharampur of Murshidabad district, Bandopadhyay is a science graduate, married to a Bengali film actress Nayna.