Kolkata: Hours after Mukul Roy swore allegiance to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee distanced herself from her former confidant, saying that it was his “personal decision”.
Roy had returned to the TMC after the 2021 Bengal poll results were announced in May that year, but he did not resign as Krishnanagar North MLA which he won as a BJP candidate.
“If someone goes to Delhi, Mumbai or Punjab, that is their personal decision. He (Roy) is still a BJP MLA. But I learnt from the news that his son has filed a missing complaint. So, the administration is carrying out an inquiry to ensure that he is fine and his health is okay. I don’t have anything else to say. It’s their personal choice,” Mamata said at a media briefing Wednesday at the state secretariat.
In Delhi, Roy, too, claimed that he never had switched his allegiance to the TMC. “I was always with the BJP, and I will remain with the party if they offer me work. There is no question of resigning from the TMC. I am not even part of it. I had already resigned from the TMC,” he told the media.
The former railway minister also claimed that he spoke to Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the telephone and added that he wanted to meet BJP president J.P. Nadda to work for the BJP once again.
However, none from the BJP responded to Roy’s statement barring Nandigram MLA and Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, who said the party was neither interested nor was in touch with the former railway minister.
“We are working on strengthening the party at booth level. Party is working to bring the non-BJP voters to its fold. We don’t need to induct any leaders, especially those who have been rejected,” Adhikari told a news agency.
The developments came after Roy suddenly “disappeared” from his office in Kolkata on Monday evening, only to be spotted at Delhi’s IGI Airport a few hours later. In the meantime, his son Subhrangshu Roy rushed to the police station at Kolkata airport to file a missing complaint for his father.
Subhrangshu claimed that his father wasn’t well and had undergone a brain surgery, adding that he didn’t have the money to purchase airline tickets. This entire episode was a conspiracy to malign TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, he added.
But, Mukul Roy refuted his son’s statement in Delhi, saying that he might have not informed his family before flying off to Delhi, but his health is fine, and that he wants to work for the BJP.
Roy had undergone a brain surgery in March, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen said, commenting on his medical condition.
“Post surgery, he was diagnosed with dementia amongst other health issues. But there are political leaders who have credentials. Why Mukul Roy is saying all these, no one knows. He might want to save himself from the (central) agencies and that’s why he wants to hold BJP’s hand once again,” Sen told ThePrint.
Roy had a fallout with Mamata after his name cropped up in the Narada and Saradha scams. Subsequently, he joined the BJP in November 2017 and was made a national vice-president of the party.
But after elections, in June 2021, he returned to the TMC in the presence of Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee at the Trinamool headquarters in Kolkata. But, Roy was not seen actively taking part in politics since his return to the ruling party in Bengal.
(Edited by Tony Rai)