Mukul, son back in Trinamool

Tribune News Service

Kolkata/new delhi, June 11

In a setback to the BJP, Mukul Roy, the first Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader to have switched to the saffron party, on Friday returned to the TMC triggering off speculation about more such “turncoats” thronging back to TMC.

‘He Wasn’t indispensable’

People are free to go wherever they like. We did not profit much by his presence. I don’t think we shall lose much by his decision to leave. Dilip Ghosh, bengal bjp chief

Roy, national vice-president of the BJP and party MLA from Krishnanagar Uttar constituency, turned up at the TMC office in Kolkata this afternoon with his former MLA son Subhrangshu Roy (38). They were welcomed back into the TMC by party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Apparently, Roy was contemplating returning to the TMC as far back as March this year when the Assembly elections were underway in the state.

Banerjee said, “Roy did not utter a single word against the TMC during the Assembly elections.” She said those turncoats who had attacked the TMC at the time of elections and “betrayed” the party would not be taken back to the party.

Mukul joined the BJP in 2017. Roy’s name had figured in the Narada sting case being probed by the CBI. Roy’s critics claimed that he switched to BJP to avoid CBI action. Asked what led him to return to the TMC, Roy said he would soon give a detailed written statement on this. “I could not do BJP. I will not do BJP. That is why I have returned to my original home,” he said without specifying any particular reason.

Banerjee said Roy was forced to join the BJP. “Agency was used to intimidate him,” she added. The CM said, “I had noticed that his heath was deteriorating. It is not possible to work for the BJP. There is so much repression, so much cruelty…..there is no place there for any human value.”

Meanwhile, BJP’s Bengal MP Swapan Dasgupta today tweeted, “An election setback is of concern. The task of Bengal BJP is to draw the lessons and move ahead. These steps are underway and will become evident. There’s no cause for new and old karyakartas to be dispirited and go into a shell. The BJP will build on the 2.2 crore votes and enlarge its reach.” While the BJP leadership dismissed as “inconsequential” Roy’s ‘ghar wapsi’, also calling him an “opportunist” who passed on “internal information of BJP to TMC”, there are concerns in the party which also draws significant strength from the play of perceptions.

This is also almost the first instance when a leader of Roy’s designation (vice president) has walked out of the BJP under Modi-Shah. “He was someone who was suitably accommodated in the organisation,” party leaders say.

While Roy was said to be upset over being denied the Leader of Opposition post and the increasing clout of Suvendu Adhikari, his return may have just opened doors to other former TMC leaders, observers say.