Out of favour TMC MP Mukul Roy returns 'Z' category status

 Senior Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy today returned the 'Z' category security provided to him by the West Bengal government.

"I have verbally communicated (to the government) that there is no need to provide me with a security cover. I have told my guards not to come," Roy told PTI. Quizzed on his decision, Roy said "I have come to know from newspapers that I have been removed from the post of the TMC vice-president and from various parliamentary standing committees. So I felt that there is no need for any security cover." When asked TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said "It is up to him (Roy) to decide whether he wants security or not. He felt he doesn't need it any more." To questions on whether Roy would leave the party, Chatterjee said "How can I comment on it? He(Roy) says that staying on the crease is important. But cricket is a team game and how will a striker score runs without another batsman at the non striker's end.

"I don't know in which crease will he play in days to come, but he is friend of mine and he is still a member of the party's working committee," Chatterjee said. Once a number two in TMC, Roy, a Rajya Sabha MP, presently has a strained relationship with the party. He was absent from the inaugural program of party's mouthpiece 'Jago Bangla's' Durga Puja edition yesterday.

The edition was inaugurated by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the entire top brass of the party was present at the programme except Roy. The TMC leadership had recently decided to restructure its committee following which the post of its vice-president was abolished. Roy was earlier removed as the party's in-charge of Tripura, a state where TMC was steadily making inroads till its members switched to BJP earlier this year.