Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national vice-president Mukul Roy will be returning to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) along with his son Shubhranshu. Ahead of his formal return, he is likely to meet TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee at the TMC headquarter on Friday afternoon at 3 pm. Mukul Roy was the first big leader of TMC 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 favored after he joined the party in December.
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,”.
