After quitting Mamta’s Trinamool Congress, Mukul Roy joins BJP
KOLKATA: Capping months of speculation, Mukul Roy, one of the founders of the Trinamool Congress, on Friday announced he was joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He said the BJP will seize power in West Bengal in 2021, when the next assembly election is due.
As founder member of Trinamool Congress Mukul Roy snapping his old ties with TMC, its leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, it hurt both the party and leader’s image.Incidentally, it happened next day Mamata met Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Bal Keshav Thackeray in Mumbai discussing and some alliances.
Thus Roy’s joining sent a political message that BJP would play out any move to form a wider anti-Modi and –BJP alliance,’’ feel political observers here.Roy joining BJP isn’t a big news anymore as he was ready but BJP was looking for `an appropriate time’ to take him in despite Bengal BJP leaders’ factional objections.
Roy who was welcomed by BJP leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in Delhi Friday evening, was reportedly listened to Roy’s plea that he would “join the party in Delhi and not in Kolkata.’’ However, it happened a few days after Mamata Banerjee pooh-poohed Roy, attacked BJP and urged her party men to oust Narendra Modi-led NDA from Delhi! “It was a chosen time, time is major factor in politics,’’ said a disgruntled TMC leader and supported by a state BJP veteran.
Though it’s not certain yet how Mukul Roy going to be used by BJP notwithstanding strong Bengal’s inner-party objections “which is going to be streamlined by Amit Shah,’’ it was reported that Roy met party president after formally joining the party in Delhi. Interestingly, while Roy bargained over his ability to bring in TMC men in BJP, saffron leaders told him candidly about their mission in both general and assembly elections. “Let wait and see how both Roy and BJP gain,’’ said a Left leader.
On 11 October, he resigned from the Trinamool Congress, alleging that people within it were treated like “servants” to a dynasty, hitting out at West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee. While suspending Roy from the party, Trinamool Congress’s secretary general Partha Chatterjee had said he had bowed to pressure from central investigating agencies and that he was working for some time to destabilise the party.
Roy was seen in the controversial Narada News sting operation, and is one of the leaders being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate. He is also alleged to have helped the now defunct Saradha Group ply its illegitimate deposit collection business.
On Friday, Roy said people of West Bengal were desperately seeking change, and that the BJP was the only alternative to the current regime. The BJP isn’t a communal force that the Trinamool Congress claims it is, Roy said.
