Mukul Roy dies: The rise, fall and curious case of Bengal’s 'Chanakya'

The Calcutta High Court on November 13, 2025, disqualified veteran leader Mukul Roy as an MLA under the anti-defection law

• Veteran politician Mukul Roy dies at 71 in Kolkata hospital
• Roy was a key Trinamool strategist and ex-Railways Minister
• He switched between CPI(M), Congress, Trinamool, and BJP

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Veteran West Bengal politician and former Union minister of state for railways Mukul Roy died at the age of 71 in a private hospital in Kolkata after a prolonged illness.

According to reports, Roy breathed his last at 1.30 am on Monday.

“He was suffering from multiple ailments,” his son Subhrangshu Roy told Indian Express.

Roy reportedly suffered from dementia and various other ailments.

Roy’s political journey

Growing up in Kanchrapara, a small suburban town about 57 km off Kolkata in North 24 Parganas district, Roy, ironically, had a Left background.

Both his parents, Jugal Nath and Rekha Roy, were CPI(M) activists. He also began his journey as a CPI(M) worker. But soon he came under the influence of a local Congress leader and eventually joined the party.

In the UPA II government, he served initially as Minister of State, Shipping, before taking over as Railways Minister in March 2012,

However, Roy was reportedly never happy in the Congress.

When Mamata Banerjee launched the Trinamool Congress, Roy became one of the founding members.

Known as the “Chanakya of Bengal politics,” Roy was once regarded as the number two leader in the Trinamool.

A master strategist and backroom negotiator, Roy played a crucial role in building the party’s organisational network across West Bengal and managing political equations in New Delhi. He was widely seen as the party’s chief troubleshooter and operator, handling alliances, parliamentary coordination, and key electoral strategies both in Bengal and at the national level.

After Banerjee became the Bengal CM in 2011, Roy continued playing a key role in the Trinamool. Roy remained the party’s general secretary till 2015.

However, the distance between Trinamool and him grew after his name surfaced in connection with the Saradha chit fund case and the Narada sting operation.

Eventually Roy joined the BJP in November 2017 and is widely credited with helping the party expand its base in the state, particularly during the 2019 Lok Sabha election, when the BJP won 18 seats in Bengal.

But Roy developed a distance with the BJP, and finally in June 2021, returned to the Trinamool Congress. "Ghorer chhele ghore phirlo (Mukul has returned home)," the CM had said.

According to reports, the main source of his resentment in the BJO was Suvendu Adhikari who quickly became the party’s most-favoured.

However, after returning to the Trinamool, Roy was never quite his earlier self, either in political stature or strategic acumen, as his influence within the party had visibly diminished compared to his peak years.

Eventually, the Calcutta High Court on November 13, 2025, disqualified Roy as an MLA under the anti-defection law for switching to the Trinamool after having been elected on a BJP ticket in the 2021 Assembly elections.