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Once Mamata's number 2, former Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy joins BJP

Roy was Mamata's number 2 and helped TMC become a force in West Bengal.

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Mukul Roy with Ravi Shankar Prasad at BJP HQ
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Former Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy joined the BJP today. He was inducted into the party at BJP headquarters in presence of Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in Delhi around late afternoon.

Roy had resigned from the Rajya Sabha and quit the TMC earlier this month. Last month, he was suspended from the TMC for six years for indulging in "anti-party activities" after he had announced on September 25 that he would quit the party.

Speaking on the occasion, the Union Ministre said: “Happy to inform that Mukul Roy is joining BJP, we welcome him. His experience will benefit us surely I believe.” 

At his first press conference after joining the ruling party, he hailed the BJP for helping TMC in the early days. He reminded the audience that TMC was part of the NDA government and added: "I believe the BJP is a secular force, not a communal one."

The co-founder of Trinamool Congress, the 63-year-old was once a right-hand man of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. He helped her form the party in 1998.

Roy’s inclusion will certainly benefit the BJP, which is trying to gain presence in Bengal, where it's hoping to occupy the empty opposition space after the decimation of the Congress and the Left. Roy, like Banerjee, started his political career, as a Youth Congress leader.

He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2009 and was the leader of the Upper House between 2009 and 2012. He was also the Railway Minister in UPA-II.  Having crushed the Left in Bengal, Mukul Roy and Mamata Banerjee fell out in 2015 when his name turned up in the Saradha and Narada sting.

Roy was interrogated by the CBI in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam, whose faith in the investigative agency was in stark contrast to Mamata’s reaction, who in turn accused the NDA government of using the CBI to put pressure on political rivals.

Earlier, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh had said former Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy was an enterprising leader and his presence could benefit his party.

Ghosh had on a previous occasion lauded Roy as a "good organiser" and said he had made a "big contribution" to the growth of the TMC in Bengal.

He had described the BJP as a non-communal party and said that the TMC would not have tasted success without the backing of the saffron outfit at the national level during its initial years.

The TMC suspended him for six years alleging that he had indulged in "anti-party activities" as soon as he announced that he would quit the party.

Interestingly, Roy’s son Subrahnshu, an MLA  is still part of TMC and once said at a public meeting which made his allegiance clear: “Mamata Banerjee says the final word and no other leader is more important in Trinamool Congress.”


With inputs from PTI

 

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