After Suvendu Adhikari, Swapan Dasgupta seeks Mukul Roy's resignation from Bengal Assembly

Echoing Bengal LoP Suvendu Adhikari, BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta called for BJP-turned-TMC MLA Mukul Roy's resignation from the Assembly. Maintaining that his defection was a part of politics, Dasgupta reminded Roy that he had resigned from Rajya Sabha in 2017 before joining the BJP. Mukul Roy and his son returned to Trinamool after a 4-year BJP term, triggering a possible return of several TMC turncoats after BJP's Bengal loss.   

Dasgupta: 'Mukul Roy must resign'

Mukul Roy's Central security revoked by MHA

On Thursday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) revoked security to the TMC leader, as per govt sources. Roy had written to the Centre seeking withdrawal of his security cover after Bengal govt announced that he will be provided with Z security. Sources have reported that ex-BJP Vice President Mukul Roy is set to be made Trinamool Vice-President. Mukul and Subhranshu Roy rejoined the Trinamool Congress in the presence of CM Mamata Banerjee and TMC General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee at the party's Kolkata headquarters on Friday.

Welcoming her oldest aide, Banerjee said, "We welcome Mukul Roy. He will play an important role in the Party. Many will follow. Those who criticized the party, betrayed the party before elections for BJP, for money, we will not consider them." Roy's peer Suvendu Adhikari who joined the BJP has sought to invoke the anti-defection law against MLA Mukul Roy if he does not resign in a day. "The BJP legislature party has decided to take recourse to the law if the matter is not settled," Adhikari told reporters outside Raj Bhavan, where a delegation of saffron party MLAs held a discussion with Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.

Mukul Roy miffed

Roy and his son had hinted at their exit when Roy skipped an important organizational meeting of the saffron party and his silence on the post-poll violence set the rumour mills abuzz. Moreover, Roy has been miffed as Nandigram MLA Suvendu Adhikari pipped him to the Leader of the Opposition's post. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself spoke to Roy as several BJP leaders including Sonali Guha, Sarala Murmu and Dipendu Biswas have publicly expressed a desire to rejoin the Mamata Banerjee-led party after the election results.

Roy had resigned from TMC in September 2017 and joined BJP two months later. Subsequently, he was made the national vice-president of the BJP in September 2020. While he won the Krishnanagar North seat in Nadia district, his son Subhrangshu who joined the party in May 2019 was defeated from the Bijpur seat from where he was the incumbent MLA. Mamata Banerjee managed to halt the BJP juggernaut, retaining Bengal with TMC winning 213 seats whereas BJP could win in only 77 constituencies.