TESTING TIMES

Happy Homecoming?
Will Mukul’s return strengthen Trinamool’s bid to break BJP in Bengal?
Trinamool Congress supremo
Mamata Banerjee made it
clear on Friday that not only
Mukul Roy, but there are many more
leaders who will be joining the ruling
party soon, making it obvious that
the Trinamool will make every effort
to break the BJP in West Bengal.
In a big blow to the BJP, its all-
India Vice President and MLA Mukul
Roy joined the Trinamool Congress
on Friday along with his son
Subhrangshu Roy, almost four years
after deserting the Trinamool camp
for the saffron camp.
Banerjee, who was present at
the Trinamool Bhavan when Roy
returned to the party fold, said that
more people will come out of the
BJP and join the Trinamool Congress
soon.
And Roy, who has mastered the
art of negotiations for years, might
just fit into Banerjee’s political designs.
The question that is doing
the rounds is what prompted the
‘Chanakya’ of Bengal politics to
leave the BJP and join his old political
party?
While anybody not familiar with
Bengal politics might see Roy’s move
as a ‘bolt from the blue’, but the senior
politician’s tryst with the saffron
brigade was on the wane ever
since the 2019 general elections, despite
Roy playing an important role
in making the BJP a formidable opposition,
winning 18 of the 42 Lok
Sabha seats.
Though Roy was instrumental
in negotiating with heavyweights
like Arjun Singh, Saumitra Khan,
Anupam Hazra and Nisith Pramanik
before the last general elections, his
continuous differences with state
BJP President Dilip Ghosh had
made him non-functional after the
40 July 2021
Opinion Express