Mukul Roy returns to Kolkata, apparently ‘empty-handed’

Mukul Roy, veteran politician from Bengal, returned to the state from Delhi after 12 days with not much to offer, as was being speculated in the political domain.

“I had a talk with everyone… If required, I will go again… I am with the BJP, and will go (to Delhi) any day. I am fit… I have returned on my own, nobody took me away by force. I am perfectly healthy. I had gone on my own wish,” Roy said responding to a flurry of questions, on arrival in Kolkata.

On 17 April, Roy had emerged in Delhi, after ‘disappearing’ from Kolkata. An important leader with the Trinamool in the yesteryears, Roy had shifted allegiance to the BJP in 2017. After the 2021 state assembly elections, he had publicly ‘walked back’ to the Trinamool, while having won the election on a BJP ticket.

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Roy’s son Subhranshu had filed a complaint with a local police station saying his father was ‘missing’, following which Roy was spotted in Delhi in April. The son had also alleged that his father was being subjected to “dirty politics”, and he wasn’t keeping well.

Subhranshu had added that the attempt being made with Roy, he considered, was to malign Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool’s national general secretary. Then, Bengal’s chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said that Roy was a BJP MLA, and it depends upon him where he goes, Delhi or Punjab.

After reaching Delhi, Roy had told a section of media that he was with the BJP, is with the BJP, and will continue to remain with it. He had said that he was intending to meet top BJP leaders, Amit Shah, and JP Nadda.

Roy’s return to Kolkata, cools down the speculation that he was on his way “back” to the BJP, as no major development occurred in the public space during his stay in Delhi, despite him now claiming to have had a conversation with the top leaders in Delhi.

The BJP in Bengal doesn’t seem enthusiastic about Roy’s so-called “return” to the party, him being a MLA on the BJP ticket.

Trinamool leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, however, said that Roy is not part of Trinamool, he is a BJP member and MLA, and where he goes, and whom he meets, is his personal choice.