Once a close aide of Mamata Banerjee, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national vice-president Mukul Roy will be returning to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), along with son Shubhranshu ahead of his formal return and is likely to meet TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee at the TMC headquarters on Friday afternoon. But the final decision regarding Roy’s joining will only be taken after his meeting today at 3 pm which was pre-scheduled with the TMC top brass in Kolkata.
Mukul Roy was the party’s first big leader to jump ship in 2017. His resentment is believed to be directed at Suvendu Adhikari, another Mamata Banerjee aide who quickly became the BJP’s most favoured after he joined the party in December. Three heavyweight BJP leaders — Mukul Roy, Shamik Bhattacharya, and Rajib Banerjee, were not present at a recent meeting of the party’s West Bengal unit
Speculation about Mukul Roy’s return started when Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of Mamata Banerjee and the party’s newly appointed general secretary, visited Roy at the hospital in Kolkata where his wife is admitted. Sources say Mukul Roy had told close associates about feeling “suffocated” in the party. His frustration was amplified by the BJP’s defeat in the Bengal election. Though he had left the TMC over alleged disagreements with the party’s top leadership on multiple issues, including differences with Abhishek Banerjee.
The former Trinamool MP has concluded, that the BJP’s political culture and ethos is alien to Bengal and it is doomed to remain an “outsider” in the foreseeable future. He also added that, “No one has their finger on their pulse of the people like Mamata Banerjee,” sources close to Mukul Roy said quoting the leader as saying. “Certainly not the BJP or those who have jumped from Trinamool,”.
