In a major blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party former railway minister Mukul Roy on Friday (June 11) announced his homecoming to the Trinamool Congress.
At 3:00 in the afternoon Mukul along with his son, Subhrangshu Roy, drove to Trinamool Bhawan, the party’s headquarters, where West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee greeted them. They were felicitated by her nephew and Diamond Harbour MP, Abhishek Banerjee.
At 4:30 PM Mamata and Mukul held a joint Press conference to make the announcement of ‘home-coming’.
The Trinamool Congress chief made it amply clear that she is not going to take back the foul mouthed ‘ghaddars’ (traitors) who had joined the BJP just on the eve of the Assembly election. She was definitely referring to Suvendhu Adhikari.
Mukul had been brought back to the party after over three and a half years in the Bharatiya Janata Party. He had left the TMC in October 2017 and had later joined the saffron party.
Media reports suggest that as many as 35 of the 77 MLAs who won the BJP tickets are making up their mind to return to the TMC fold. Two of these 77 MLAs have already resigned as they are Members of Parliament and do not want to be legislators. So, by-election would be held here.
Mukul also won the recently held Assembly poll from Krishnanagar Uttar seat. Rumours started doing the rounds in political circles about Mukul’s return after the TMC’s general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee called on his ailing wife on June 2.
The very next day Prime Minister Narendra Modi too rang up Mukul Roy to inquire about the health of his wife. Some BJP leaders, including state president Dilip Ghosh, too met Mukul though the latter’s wife was suffering from corona virus for the last several weeks.
Political observers are of the view that the loss of Mukul is a much bigger embarrassment to the saffron party than the joining of Jitin Prasada on June 9. Prasada is a political deadwood in UP who lost even the 2017 Assembly poll as well as 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In 2019 he, as a Congress candidate, even lost his deposit.
