Sidelined Trinamool MP Mukul Roy is on the verge of forming a new political party which in all likelihood will be named Nationalist Trinamool Congress, sources close to the former Railway Minister said.
According to sources, an application for the registration of a new outfit has already been made before the Election Commission of India which is known to have preferred the above-mentioned name and not the other options.
Once the Man Friday of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Rajya Sabha MP who was greatly responsible for building up the party’s organisational network had been its unquestionable ‘number two’ for many years before he fell out with the Chief Minister after allegedly divulging some information to the CBI regarding some of top Trinamool leaders’ involvement in the Saradha and other chit fund scams.
Termed Chanakya of the Trinamool Congress, Roy had on Wednesday made a suggestive statement reminding how Bengal’s fourth Chief Minister Ajoy Mukherjee had split the Congress, formed his own Bangla Congress and deposed the ruling party twice in the sixties.
When asked to elaborate further he further delved into history saying “nobody knows Ajoy Mukherjee, then Irrigation Minister in 1947, but everyone knows Ajoy Mukherjee who formed a new political party, and defeated the Congress twice in Bengal.”
Not only does Roy’s statement tend to drop hints on his forming a new party by splitting the Trinamool Congress but also it gives an impression of his future plan of alliances particularly when he talks of Mukherjee, say experts.
“Ajoy Mukherjee had twice formed Governments by striking alliance with the CPI (M) first in 1967 and then in 1969-70. If read between the lines then his statement means a lot for Bengal,” said B Chakrabarty, a psephologist.
However, CPI (M)’s Sujan Chakrabarty said his party or the left Front was not concerned with what the politicians of other parties do. “We are not concerned what the Trinamool leaders are doing. We are concerned about our own programmes and we are only concentrating on that,” he said.
According to sources, Roy has direct contact with booth-level leaders of his parties as also he has been in touch with at least MPs and 56 sitting MlAs of the Trinamool Congress.