The West Bengal BJP has decided not to induct estranged Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy in the party. Roy, who is believed to have been in touch with senior BJP leaders in Delhi, has been isolated by Mamata Banerjee. He was removed from the post of the TMCs vice president post and from various parliamentary standing committees recently.
Roy, an accused in the Saradha chit scam, was once the shadow of Mamata Banerjee and undisputed second in command of the party. Roy, who was former railway minister in UPA government, has also returned the Z category security provided to him.
Roy is believed to have met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley many a time and held meeting with BJP President Amit Shah. But despite his bonhomie with senior BJP leaders in Delhi, West Bengal BJP has said that under no circumstances it would accept Mukul Roy into the party.
“Mukul Roy is an opportunist. We will not accept him into our party at any cost,” Biswapriya Roy Chowdhury, General Secretary of the BJP in West Bengal, told THE WEEK. Chowdhury said the West Bengal BJP has informed the central leadership about its reservation about Roy.
“I think central leadership knows about Roy. We have also told them that Roy should not be drafted into our party,” said Roy Chowdhury.
The BJP leader said this is not the first time Roy felt isolated in the party. When he was named in the Saradha case by CBI, he pretended to be out of the party.
“He enacted drama then as if he was no more in the party. That time he touched base with us. But after sometime he went back to Mamata Banerjee and was taken back into the party’s top leadership,” said the BJP leader.
“Whenever he was summoned by the CBI or central investigative agency he enacts drama like this. I am not privy to what he discussed with our central leadership. But we, in West Bengal party, have serious issues with Roy and we would not accept his entry,” he said. Roy recently was summoned by CBI in the Saradha chit fund scam and was interrogated for over five hours. The BJP leaders in West Bengal feel Mukul Roy, for the time being, is pretending to have distanced himself from the party. And he will make up once the crisis is over.
Roy, however, did not want to say much. “I was not holding any posts in the party or in parliament standing committees. So it was meaningless to hold Z security,” he said.
