BJP VP Mukul Roy Likely to Return To TMC

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national vice-president Mukul Roy is likely to return to Trinamool Congress (TMC), reported ANI on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The final decision regarding Roy's joining will only be taken after his meeting today with the TMC top brass in Kolkata, the agency added.

Incidentally, there had been throughout this week much speculation over Roy's potential return to Trinamool Congress, the party he had once helped form. Three heavyweight BJP leaders — Mukul Roy, Shamik Bhattacharya, and Rajib Banerjee — were not present at a recent meeting of the party's West Bengal unit, thus sparking a buzz in the state's political scene.

Mukul Roy, once a veteran leader of Trinamool Congress and close aide of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, had a falling-out with the TMC supremo after being named an accused in the Narada sting operation case back in 2017. After being suspended for six years over "anti-party activities", Roy eventually left the TMC, giving up his Rajya Sabha seat in October that year, before joining the BJP in November. Subhranshu Roy, Mukul's son, also followed in his father's footsteps and joined the party in 2019. In September 2020, Mukul Roy was made the national vice-president of the BJP, the report said.

However, Mukul Roy's position in the BJP was debated in select political circles following the recently conducted 2021 West Bengal legislative assembly elections, which saw the Trinamool Congress receiving an overwhelming public mandate to retain power in the state. Although many considered Roy a fearsome addition to the BJP's arsenal ahead of the state assembly elections — armed with "insider" knowledge against the TMC, so to speak — the final result was unpredictably grim for the BJP. While Mukul Roy won the Krishnanagar North seat in Nadia district, the only time he ever contested elections, his son was defeated from the Bijpur seat that he held in the North 24 Parganas district.

ALSO READ: Congress Holds Nationwide Protest Against Fuel Price Hike