Kolkata, Feb 23: The ‘Chanakya’ of Bengal politics, Mukul Roy, passed away at a private hospital in Kolkata in the early hours of Monday. He was 72 years old. Roy, a veteran TMC leader and former Railway Minister, was not responding well to treatment for the past few days, his family said while confirming about his demise Monday morning.
He was suffering from multiple ailments, including Parkinson’s disease, and had undergone three surgeries, said his son Subhranshu Roy. He was admitted to the hospital for over two years and was in a coma, Subhranshu added.
Mukul Roy’s life in Bengal politics
Mukul’s political life has always been colourful. It started in the Left camp. But that journey did not last long. Mrinal Singharai, the Congress leader of North 24 Parganas, brought him into the party. Mukul started his journey in the Congress by joining the Chhatra Parishad. Since then, he has been close to West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee.
Mamata decided to form a new party in the late nineties. The then opposition leader planned a new party with Mukul and a few others. Starting with Mukul, 9 leaders like Atin Ghosh and Tamonash Ghosh applied to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to form a new party. Mamata did not officially become a member of TMC at that time. Later, she became a member.
From then until 2017, Mukul became synonymous with TMC. In 2009, he became the Minister of State for Shipping in the second United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by former Prime Minister late Dr Manmohan Singh. Then in 2011, after the TMC won the West Bengal assembly elections, Mamata Banerjee became the Chief Minister. Dinesh Trivedi took over the Railway Ministry from her. Later, Dinesh had to leave the ministry due to dissatisfaction with the increase in railway fares. Mukul then became the Railway Minister.
On the Panchami of Durga Puja in 2017, the leader announced his separation from TMC by holding a press conference at Nizam Palace. After the puja was over, the former Railway Minister also resigned from his Rajya Sabha membership. There was speculation about Mukul joining the BJP for several months. Finally, on November 3, he went to the BJP central office in Delhi and took the flag from senior party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad and became a BJP member.
He remained in the BJP until June 2021. Mukul became a member of the Assembly for the first time by defeating TMC candidate and actress Kaushani Mukherjee from Krishnanagar North constituency. However, after the BJP’s defeat in that election, the leader changed sides. Since then, however, Mukul was not active in politics.
