It was sometimes in August when the then-literal number two in the Trinamool party did the unthinkable and jumped ship and joined the BJP. He was the person responsible for luring many other leaders (Rajiv Banerjee, Babul Supriyo, Sabyasachi, Arjun Singh, etc.), though most of them have returned to the Trinamool Congress. Mukul did a volte-face, and he too joined TMC, ditching the BJP, and was given an embracing welcome. Mukul’s return was a slap in the face of the BJP. However, I had labelled him then as a Trojan horse!
His second stint at TMC was controversial. He was elected on a BJP ticket, and a defection would have cost him his seat. He sat with the TMC and claimed that he was still in the BJP, a shameless act unbecoming of any yesteryear Bengali lawmaker. Abhishek called the first shot, the show of his strength, with his one-man, one-post formula targeting Partha Chatterjee, the then general secretary of the Trinamool and a minister with several portfolios, and Firhad Hakim, the mayor and the urban affairs minister. Firhad was stripped of his ministerial portfolio and had to contend as a mayor.
The seniors had clearly fallen out of favour with Abhishek, who steered his way and carefully groomed his supporters. Mukul found that the TMC had changed since the time he quit the party and reentered. He was no longer the grand schemer and plotter to give winning candidates an edge, as Mamata took over the reins and scripted a massive win in the 2021 elections.
Mukul Roy was seen in the Kolkata airport yesterday, which sent his son, a TMC official, scrambling to the police, complaining that his father was sick, from Parkinson’s to serious post-surgery complications, a probable brain malfunction, and using adult diapers (lol)! The usual lazy and unresponsive police swung into action, catching all those who were seen with Mukul Roy and a team rushing to Delhi to question the Trishanku leader about the facts. Surely, Mukul had decided to leave the TMC and had only one place to seek refuge: the BJP.
In these days of shameless politics, anyone is admitted into any party, where politics has ceased to be based on ideologies and is dependent on the immediate loss the person can inflict on the party he or she is leaving. Mamata is presently worried by a scheming BJP, which she alleges is trying to topple her government, as if it were as easy as plucking mangoes from a tree. The discomfiture is her doing—not stopping the looting and disparagingly promoting gangsters and thieves into her party.
One witnesses and hears only of the scams and arrests that the adrenaline-pumped CBI makes, prodded by a few hyperactive judges, leaving no muck unsearched for hidden mobile phones or pen drives. In the ‘Khela Hobe,’ raj of Didi, the burning of documents and destruction of evidence are wantonly done, which is despicable and makes all decent persons in Bengal hang their heads in shame. Blaming the BJP for all her ills is perfect from a political point of view, but the tarnishing of the state’s image cannot be ignored any longer.
Mukul will find no space in the BJP, unless his re-entering TMC was engineered by the BJP, which I guess may not be. Taking the voters for granted must end, and Mukul and his elk must be shown the door.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
