Veteran TMC leader Mukul Roy, who has kept political pundits guessing about his next move, said on Tuesday night that he is still a BJP lawmaker and would like to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah, since he is eager to return to the saffron camp.
Roy, who on Monday night flew to New Delhi for “some personal work” even as his family initially claimed he was “missing”, only to later accuse the BJP of engaging in dirty politics using the TMC leader who did not feel good and not in the “right frame of mind”.
“I am a BJP lawmaker. I want to be with the BJP. The group has made arrangements for me to stay here. I want to meet Amit Shah and talk to (party chairman) JP Nadda,” he told a Bengali news channel on Tuesday night.
The founding TMC member switched to the BJP in 2017. He won as the saffron party candidate in the 2011 West Bengal assembly election. He, however, returned to the Trinamool Congress shortly afterwards without resigning from the House.
“I wasn’t keeping up well for quite a while, so I was away from politics. But right now, I’m fine and I would be active in politics again,” Roy said.
He said that he is “100 percent sure that it will never be associated with the TMC.”
Roy also had advice for his son Subharanghsu. “He should also join the BJP as it suits him better,” he said.
The drama over Roy’s whereabouts has evolved since Monday night when relatives of the TMC leader claimed he was “untraceable.”
After arriving in Delhi last night, Roy told reporters that he had arrived in the national capital but “did not have a specific agenda.”
“I have come to Delhi. There is no specific agenda. I have been a representative for several years. Can’t go to Delhi? Earlier, I used to come to Delhi regularly. I am MLA and MP from Delhi,” she said.
The son of the former railway minister, Subhrangshu, had told PTI that his father was “untraceable” and “missing” since Monday night.
As there was speculation that Roy might rejoin the BJP, Subhrangshu, who had also switched to Camp Saffron, said his father is “extremely ill” suffering from “dementia and Parkinson’s disease”.
“My father is not in the right frame of mind. He would ask everyone not to do politics with a sick person. After his disappearance, I also filed a police report last night,” he told reporters.
Roy’s son also claimed his father had “brain surgery” last month and did not acknowledge even family members and close associates.
Subhrangshu said that when he learned Monday night that the TMC leader was traveling to Delhi by air, he had asked the authorities to disembark him, but by then, “the flight had taken off.”
“The chief minister herself had called to inquire about my father’s well-being,” said Subhrangshu, who had also returned to the TMC in 2021 along with her father.
Speculation about Roy’s rejoining the BJP gained momentum after BJP National Secretary Anupam Hazra made a cryptic one-word post on Facebook: “I’m back.”
When contacted by a news channel, Hazra said: “It is time to wait and see. Wait a day or two; everything will be cleared up very soon.”
Reacting to Hazra’s comments, Subhranghsu said it was an attempt to smear the TMC and its national secretary general, Abhishek Banerjee.
“It is shameful that some people have sunk so low and are making politics over my father’s visit to New Delhi. This is an attempt to smear the TMC and our party’s National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee,” he said.
State parliamentary affairs minister and TMC leader Sovandeb Chattopadhyay accused the BJP of engaging in dirty politics.
“I have known Mukul Roy for several decades. He is so sick that he doesn’t recognize people and can’t complete a sentence correctly. Now if the BJP wants to engage in politics using a sick person, we condemn such dirty politics,” he said.
However, senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said the saffron camp is not interested in “reinstating Roy into the party”. Meanwhile, the airport police station, under the Bidhannagar Police Commissioner, questioned Pijush Kanodia, a BJP leader and one-time close associate of Mukul Roy, during his stay at the saffron camp.
“Following a complaint from Mukul Roy’s son, we have questioned a local South Dum Dum leader about his alleged involvement in the matter. We also sent a couple of officers to New Delhi to find out what happened,” a senior police officer said.
Roy joined the BJP in 2017 after differences with the TMC leadership. He was appointed as the national vice president of the BJP in 2020.
He won from the Krishnanagar North assembly seat on a BJP ticket in 2021 and returned to the TMC just a month after the results were announced, complaining of “mistreatment” by the saffron party. He, however, did not resign as an MLA.
Since his return to TMC, he has stayed out of the public spotlight.
Roy also resigned as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in the West Bengal assembly last year, citing poor health.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)
