Ex-Railway Minister, once close aide of Mamata Banerjee Mukul Roy passes away

Former Union Minister and TMC leader Mukul Roy.

Former Union Railway Minister and once a close aide of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Mukul Roy passed away at a private hospital in Kolkata early Monday morning.

According to his son Subhrangshu Roy, he was suffering from multiple ailments and he breathed his last around 1:30am. He was 71.

According to a report in The Indian Express, Roy started his career with the Youth Congress in Bengal. He was a founding member of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), who worked alongside Mamata Banerjee. He was not only made the party’s general secretary but was also considered a close aide of Mamata Banerjee and no.2 in TMC.

Eventually, he rose through the ranks and was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2006. While serving as the TMC leader in the Rajya Sabha from 2009 to 2012, he emerged as the party's face in Delhi.

As per Indian Express, Roy served initially as Minister of State, Shipping, before taking over as Railways Minister in March 2012 under the UPA II government.

'Chanakya of Bengal politics'

Once known as ‘Chanakya of Bengal politics’, Roy contributed in strengthening the TMC after it ended 34 years of the Left rule and came to power in 2011, with Mamata Banerjee as Chief Minister.

Roy, who was the party’s general secretary till 2015, oversaw an unprecedented wave of defections from the CPI(M) and Congress.

Switching sides

Two years from 2015, Roy distanced himself from the TMC and formally joined the BJP in November 2017. Roy worked on the ground helping the BJP build base in West Bengal.

He helped the BJP woo a number of TMC stalwarts in its fold and got elected as a BJP MLA from Krishnanagar Uttar in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls.

However, soon he became disenchanted with the BJP too and returned to the TMC the same year.

BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari had challenged Roy's switchover to the TMC and sought his disqualification before then Speaker Biman Banerjee, who dismissed his plea.

This prompted Adhikari to knock the doors of the Calcutta High Court. Adhikari’s plea argued that Roy’s defection to the TMC, despite being elected on a BJP mandate, was a clear violation of the anti-defection statute.

In November last year,  the Calcutta High Court disqualified Roy as an MLA under the anti-defection law for switching over to the ruling TMC, after having been elected on a BJP ticket in the 2021 elections.