Got to know from papers about my removal, says Mukul Roy

Kolkata: Senior Trinamul Congress leader Mukul Roy on Wednesday returned the “Z” category security provided to him by the West Bengal government. “I have verbally communicated (to the government) that there is no need to provide me with a security cover. I have told my guards not to come,” Mr Roy said.

Quizzed on his decision, Mr Roy said “I have come to know from newspapers that I have been removed from the post of the TMC vice-president and from various parliamentary standing committees. So I felt that there is no need for any security cover.”

When asked, TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said, “It is up to him (Roy) to decide whether he wants security or not. He felt he doesn’t need it any more.”

To questions on whether Roy would leave the party, Chatterjee said “How can I comment on it? He (Roy) says that staying on the crease is important. But cricket is a team game and how will a striker score runs without another batsman at the non striker’s end.

“I don’t know in which crease will he play in days to come, but he is a friend of mine and he is still a member of the party’s working committee,” Mr Chatterjee said.

Once a number two in TMC, Mr Roy, a Rajya Sabha MP, presently has a strained relationship with the party. He was absent from the inaugural programme of party’s mouthpiece Jago Bangla’s’ Durga Puja edition on Tuesday.