Former Railway Minister and senior Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy, who was once a close associate of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, passed away due to cardiac arrest at 1:30 am on Sunday. He died at Apollo Hospital in Salt Lake, Kolkata. Roy had been suffering from dementia and several other health issues. A few days ago, he slipped into a coma.
Over the past two years, his health had been steadily worsening. He was frequently hospitalised and had stopped recognising familiar faces. He was being given liquid food through a Ryle’s tube. According to Aaj Tak Bangla, his last rites will be held on Monday after his body is brought back home.
Who was Mukul Roy?
Mukul Roy was born on April 17, 1954, in Kanchrapara, a town in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. He was the son of Jugal Nath Roy and Rekha Roy. In August 1980, he married Krishna Roy. The couple had one son, Subhranshu Roy, who later entered politics and served as an MLA, following in his father’s footsteps.
Mukul Roy was once considered the second most powerful leader in the Trinamool Congress after Mamata Banerjee. However, in 2017, he surprised many by leaving the party and joining the BJP, just two years before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
He played an important role in strengthening the BJP’s presence in West Bengal and helped it emerge as the main opposition party in the state. He was a key strategist for the BJP and contributed significantly to the party winning 18 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal in 2019, according to a PTI report.
Mukul Roy’s Political Journey
In the 2021 Assembly elections, Roy contested on a BJP ticket and won from Krishnanagar. But over time, his influence in the party declined and he eventually returned to Mamata Banerjee’s camp.
He left the BJP about a month after Suvendu Adhikari became the Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal, following his close victory over Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram during the Assembly elections.
Often called the “Chanakya of Bengal politics” for his sharp political mind, Roy was one of the founding members of the Trinamool Congress in 1998 and later became the party’s national general secretary.
After helping the Trinamool Congress defeat the Left Front and come to power in West Bengal in 2011, Roy was appointed Minister of State for Shipping in the UPA II government. He later served as Railway Minister from March to September 2012.
Why did Mukul Roy leave TMC, join BJP and return again?
Mukul Roy’s ties with the Trinamool Congress began to weaken after his name came up in investigations linked to the Saradha chit fund scam and the Narada sting operation. In 2015, he was removed from the post of national general secretary. Two years later, in 2017, he was expelled from the party, according to a report by The Economic Times.
In November 2017, Roy joined the BJP. The move was seen as a major political shift in West Bengal. He was later made the party’s national vice president and was given the responsibility of strengthening the BJP’s organisation in the state. He helped the BJP expand rapidly and emerge as the main opposition to the Trinamool Congress.
However, after the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, his position within the BJP reportedly weakened. Internal differences and changing political equations reduced his influence in the party. Eventually, Roy decided to return to the Trinamool Congress and rejoined the party in 2021, marking another dramatic turn in his political journey, the report mentioned.