Mukul Roy’s return to his alma mater Trinamool Congress signals a shift in the politics of West Bengal. Roy was one of the founders of the TMC, along with Mamata Banerjee, in 1998, having parted ways with Youth Congress. He is a tried-and-tested lieutenant of didi familiar with his place and position in the rank and hierarchy of the TMC. Roy quit TMC in November 2017 for a berth in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after his name cropped up in the Narda sting operation. This was personally very humiliating and embarrassing for his politics, as for his command and control over the TMC cadre and organisation.
At least Mamata could have counted herself to Mukul’s rescue on whose back she won big in 2011, bringing the 34-year Left rule to an abrupt halt in West Bengal. Nonetheless, Mamata was thoroughly involved and engaged with Roy in the best of her capacities, offering and assigning crucial political positions and privileges to him.
Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee paid a visit to Roy’s ailing wife in Kolkata, signalling a shift in the latter’s tone and temper against didi. The BJP infuriatingly reacted to Roy’s re-entry into the TMC by labelling him Mir Jafar, who can do a turn around at any point. I am of the opinion that Suvendu Adhikari’s promotion in the BJP as the leader of opposition in the West Bengal assembly has been one of the most unpleasant and unpardonable political acts of deception by the BJP.
Otherwise, why would a Mukul Roy contest from Krishnagar, which he may resign sooner than later? Many are said to be following his footsteps by calling the shots from behind. What better elaborates the pre- and post- poll CBI and ED raids on TMC representatives and functionaries? Shouldn’t Sharda and Narda be independently monitored and probed by the court, whom the BJP wants to maim and silence by falling back as an reliable opposition in the state?
Didi might have lost Nandigram by a whisker to Suvendu, but for a Bhavanipur, which is a done deal for her, the BJP electorally rolled, railed and camped all its top guns, only finding hollowness and hiccups maligning and tarnishing its prospects as an alternative after the TMC. Too little, too late — an introspection looks on the cards if only it were to sustain. Till then, let the leased and rented leaders of the TMC make a ghar wapsi .