KOLKATA 12 JUNE: In a major jolt to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party’s national vice president Mukul Roy and his son Subrangshu Roy joined TMC on Friday.
The development was formally announced on Friday with the Trinamool Congress chairman Mamata Banerjee declaring that Roy has joined out of his personal choice.
In a clear indication to Suvendu Adhikari, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that those who left the party and wreaked havoc just ahead of polls and joined forces with the BJP are Gaddars (traitors). She made it quite clear that they would not be inducted back into the party and it has been already declared.
Though, she made it also evident that Mukul Roy is an exception as he is like a family member and not a traitor.
According to Banerjee , in the recently concluded Assembly election, we have noticed that Roy has not divulged anything as far as the party’s integrity is concerned, unlike other turncoats.
Here is AITC tweet on this regard
When asked about whether TMC follows any ideology Banerjee became furious and said ” Do not tell about ideology. Roy is a family member of TMC and he returned to TMC .”
Roy said, “I am happy being inducted in the Trinamool Congress and within a few days, I will be writing a letter declaring what prompted me to end my relationship with the saffron party and the reasons for quitting BJP.”
Meanwhile, when a journalist broached the topic of Suvendu Adhikari, she declared the press conference to be over and left in a huff.
BJP state and national level leadership were in the complete dark till Friday morning until Roy announced his move to join TMC.
Moreover, sources in the BJP’s state unit said that Roy was unhappy with Suvendu Adhikari’s elevation in the party and making him the leader of the
the opposition, despite Roy being instrumental in making the party base strong in Bengal.
Interestingly, Roy has been known as Mamata Banerjee’s closest aide since the inception of the party in 1998. When Mamata Banerjee had made up her mind about quitting the Congress at the end of 1997, she had asked Roy to get the new party registered. Then the party was initially registered as a political party by Roy.
According to Banerjee, no one can stay in a party that is running autocratically and trying to stifle the voice of the people if anyone says anything. No one can stay at a party if every day a party leader gets threatened to be arrested by some agency or the other.
Mukul had also received a threat from the BJP to get himself arrested by CBI. He also had faced many challenges there in the party taking a toll on his mental health, especially the incident of fearing his arrest by the CBI.
Abhishek, who is being hailed as the second commander in the party, had paid a visit to the hospital facility where Mukul’s Roy Krishna Roy was being treated for Covid-19 while returning from his constituency a week ago. Banerjee met Subhrangshu Roy, his former party colleague, and Mukul Roy’s son at the hospital. The short meet between junior Banerjee and junior Roy sparked fresh speculation whether the father-son duo would be rejoining the party.
What BJP said
According to state BJP leaders, in politics, there is no hard and fast rule that one has to stay in the party. All of them came to the party on their wish and if anyone is wanting to leave the party, it’s because of their own choice. No one can force anybody to stay with the party.
Dilip Ghosh, BJP state president, said, “If anybody is leaving the party, it’s their own choice. We do not have anything to say on this matter. BJP is a huge party and there is no law that anyone joining the BJP party cannot join another party.”
Mukul Roy’s Life in BJP
Earlier, Mukul Roy had joined BJP in November 2017. In his first public address, Roy had attacked Abhishek Banerjee, while calling Trinamool Congress a ‘company’, and not a political party. He had questioned Abhishek’s association with the TMC government’s ‘Biswa Bangla’ project, which was launched to promote Bengali arts and crafts. “Mukul Roy drifted away from Trinamool Congress because he was not able to tolerate Abhishek’s parallel rise in the party. He sensed it long back and he saw Abhishek becoming the party’s chief in the future. This was the main bone of contention,” said a senior Trinamool leader. “He tried to negotiate with Didi about having more power in the party, which didn’t happen back then. He was already the party’s general secretary, then.”
Post Roy’s joining hands with the BJP, several of his followers followed him. Some senior MLAs, including Sabyasachi Dutta and Roy’s son Subhranshu Roy, were among the first to cross over. On Friday, Subhranshu has also rejoined the TMC.
Roy engineered more defections as senior leaders like Soumitra Khan and Nisith Pramanik joined the BJP after him and took on the role of MPs in the 2019 Parliamentary elections. Following the general election, Roy was made the party’s national vice-president. He has been quite close to the party’s national general secretary and West Bengal party in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya.
However, Roy had expected for a much bigger recognition from his new party. But, Roy’s elevation was criticised, from within the BJP, as he is one of the accused in the Saradha chit fund scam and Narada graft case.
Roy was the BJP’s candidate at the Krishnanagar North seat in Nadia, in the just concluded elections, and won. It was the first time in two decades that he had fought an election. His son Subhranshu Roy, however, lost.
What political analysts say
Political analysts believe that a politician always nurtures his political aspirations.
Biswanath Chakraborty , senior political analysts said “In 2017, Mukul Roy might have felt that BJP’s presence with more opportunities to fulfil his political aspirations. He struggled his way to BJP ranks to become national vice president. However with somewhat unexpected defeat in the recently concluded Assembly election, the rise of Suvendu Adhikari in BJP and the ongoing turbulence of his relationship with BJP leaders might have prompted him to think that his opportunities to fulfil his political aspirations have become limited if he continues in BJP. As an astute politician, he never burnt the bridges with TMC and always kept the option of returning to its fold open. Now he has just used that trump card”.