Former Railway Minister Mukul Roy, who recently quit the Trinamool Congress (TMC), joined the BJP on Friday. Roy, a co-founder of the TMC, was inducted into the party at BJP headquarters.
Roy had also resigned from the Rajya Sabha earlier this month. He was suspended from the party for six years for indulging in anti-party activities after he had announced that he will quit the party last month. The former TMC leader, known for his organisational skills, joined the BJP in the presence of BJP chief Amit Shah, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, and RS member Swapan Dasgupta.
Roy, who was long the second most powerful leader of the TMC, claimed that people of West Bengal wanted an alternative to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and will vote the BJP to power in the next polls. Roy said the BJP was not a communal but secular party and he recalled how the TMC forged an alliance with the BJP soon after Banerjee founded it and became a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government. He said the regional party could not have grown without the BJP’s support.
Prasad told a Press conference after Roy joined the party that he had played a key role in its expansion and march of the TMC to power in the State. “He also effectively fought excesses and atrocities of the previous CPI(M) Governments and insisted that Roy expressed his desire to join the BJP unconditionally and the party welcomes him wholeheartedly,” Prasad said.
The party is likely to task him with an important responsibility to drive its growth in the eastern State, where it has been traditionally weak. However, it is not clear yet what role he will have in the organisation. “His role will be decided,” Vijayvargiya, who is the party’s in-charge for West Bengal, said.
Asked about corruption allegations against him, Roy said the law will take its own course. He said that it will be his “proud privilege” to work under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.