Mukul Roy out of team Mamata; focus now on if he will join BJP

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress on Monday suspended Rajya Sabha member Mukul Roy for ‘anti-party activities’ shortly after he announced he would quit the party after Durga Puja. Trinamool had last week censured the erstwhile confidant of party chief Mamata Banerjee for ‘hobnobbing’ with BJP.

“I am announcing with a heavy heart and pain that I will resign from the party’s working committee today. I will resign as an MP, as well as from the party’s primary membership, after Durga Puja,” Roy told a news conference in Kolkata. Shortly afterwards, Trinamool secretarygeneral Par tha Chatterjee said Roy had been suspended for six years. “He has been trying to weaken the party for quite some time. The party’s disciplinary committee has discussed the issue and recommended action against him,” Chatterjee said.

Following Roy’s unceremonious exit, speculation gained ground that he may join BJP, while some supporters said that he would revive the Nationalist Trinamool Congress floated three years ago, when he had a rift with Banerjee. “Mukulda will not join BJP soon if his condition is not accepted. He has asked for absolute authority in BJP’s Bengal unit…. Dada will take charge of his own Nationalist Trinamool Congress, that may go in for an electoral alliance with the BJP,” one of Roy’s aide said. NTC may serve as an umbrella to woo disgruntled Trinamool supporters, disillusioned Left and the Congress leaders. Clarity over his future course may bring a couple of MPs and some ministers from Trinamool to his camp.