Mukul Roy deals blow to Didi

Mukul Roy, the once second-in-command in West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's TMC, on Monday announced his plan to quit the party. In reaction, TMC suspended him for six years, saying he gave in to BJP's pressure.

Roy said at a press conference that he has put in his paper as a member of the working committee of the party. After Durga Puja, which ends on September 30, he will give up his primary membership of TMC, and also step down as the party's representative in the Rajya Sabha, he said.

"I am making this announcement with a heavy heart. I had been associated with the party since its inception on December 17, 1997," said the former general secretary.

Asked what made him take such a decision, Roy said, "It is not the right time to elaborate. Now is the time when people are busy with festivities. After the pujas, I will explain what led me to take such a step," he said.

Sources said that Roy had been in touch with BJP leaders at the Centre, and they gave him the green signal for his move. "He will either join his party Nationalist Trinamool Congress Party (NTCP) floated a few months ago, which will support NDA, or he will join BJP to help it in Bengal," said a source.

Roy had been removed from the post of the party's general secretary in February 2015 after he came under the CBI scanner in the multi-crore Saradha Group chit fund scam.

After his name came up in the scam, he was sidelined in the party. He was removed as the party's vice-president and also from the party's parliamentary panel. At the July 21 rally at Esplanade, he was not allowed to make a speech.