Mukul Roy awaits BJP call as Babul Supriyo showers praise

Kolkata: Union minister and BJP leader Babul Supriyo on Tuesday lauded Mukul Roy, who has been suspended by the Trinamul Congress, for his organisational capabilities and said a decision on whether the latter would be inducted into the saffron party would be taken by its high-command.

“The decision on whether to induct him or not will be taken by the party high-command. I cannot comment on it, as I do not have any information on it. But I must say that Mukul Roy is a good organiser and known for his organisational capabilities,” the Union minister of state for heavy industries and public enterprises told reporters after a party meeting here.

With speculations doing the rounds that Mr Roy, a  Trinamul Congress MP, might join the BJP in the near future, the West Bengal unit chief of the saffron party, Dilip Ghosh, had recently said that he did not have any information on it.

He had, however, admitted that Mr Mukul Roy was in touch with the top BJP leadership in New Delhi.

Senior leaders of the state BJP, including its joint general secretary (organisation) Shiv Prakash, on Tuesday held a brainstorming session at the party’s state headquarters on various organisational issues being faced by the saffron outfit in West Bengal.

According to BJP sources, although the meeting was scheduled to focus only on the organisational aspects, the issue of Mr Roy was also likely to come up as several leaders of the party were opposed to inducting the suspended  Trinamul Congress leader into it.

Mr Roy, a former close confidante of West Bengal chief minister and  Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, had on September 25 said that he would resign from the party after Durga Puja, prompting the party to suspend him for six years for “anti- party activities”.

Once the second-in-command in the Trinamul Congress, Mr Mukul Roy has been maintaining a distance with the party leadership for the last few months. He was removed as the  Trinamul Congress vice-president after the party decided to revamp its structure.

He was earlier removed as the party’s in-charge of Tripura, where the  Trinamul Congress was steadily making inroads till some of its members switched to the BJP earlier this year. 

Sources have said that Mr Mukul Roy himself wants to join the BJP but that it would be difficult for the party to induct him directly. 

The saffron party’s top leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and president Amit Shah have repeatedly said that none involved in the Saradha and Narada scam will be spared and Roy is allegedly involved in both scandals.