There are growing signs that the Bharatiya Janata Party was very much aware of Mukul Roy’s disgruntlement with it of late, and yet, it did not take constructive steps to address his concerns. It is widely accepted that for Roy, the selection of Suvendu Adhikari as the leader of opposition in West Bengal became the final straw, after which the man decided to return to his mother ship and to the comforting havens of Mamata Banerjee. That Mukul Roy now feels safe is testified by the fact that he has asked the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to withdraw his state cover.
Perhaps this is Mukul Roy’s departing gift to the BJP – a stunning statement of how only BJP leaders in West Bengal require safety, and once they jump ship back to the TMC – they are insulated from all forms of political violence. Mukul Roy is no small leader. He is known across Bengal as a founder of the TMC, and one of Mamata Banerjee’s closest confidantes who played an instrumental role in dislodging the Left government in 2011. He has been the TMC’s face in New Delhi and has even served as the Union Railways Minister during the UPA II government.
The BJP inducted him simply because it needed to be aware of such secrets in order to take on Mamata Banerjee. Mukul Roy played his role very well, but then, he became a non-performing asset for the BJP who was unable to give the party any direction. His corruption-laden background too did not play to his advantage within the party.
Mukul Roy has been frustrated with the BJP for quite some time now. During the campaign too – Mamata Banerjee avoided making any attack against him, probably in an indication that he has been in touch with the TMC longer than is publicly known. Roy played a definitive role in bringing Suvendu Adhikari to the BJP’s fold, and that has precisely been his forte – effectuating defections from the TMC into the saffron fold.
The results of the West Bengal assembly elections bear testament to the fact that holding on to Mukul Roy’s style of politics would get the BJP nowhere in Bengal. He won an assembly seat himself, but the BJP was handed one of its most humiliating defeat in seven years. For the BJP leadership, its performance in the polls became the last straw. When he could, Roy served the party’s purposes. He provided ammunition to the BJP and helped build an organization. Thereafter, he simply had nothing more to offer.
The BJP realizes the need of cultivating a set of strong leaders in Bengal driven by the party’s ideology. Suvendu Adhikari is now despised by Mamata Banerjee, and any scope of reconciliation between the two is non-existent. So, Adhikari is what the BJP is betting on now.
However, Suvendu Adhikari’s rise within the party is said to have stunned Mukul Roy. Particularly after the elections – when Adhikari emerged as a giant slayer by defeating Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram, the BJP realized the importance of the leader they had gotten hold of. Now, Adhikari seems to have become the chief correspondent between Delhi and Kolkata. Meeting PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, JP Nadda and others – it is Suvendu who is fast emerging as the face of the BJP in Bengal.
The BJP knew very well that the selection of Suvendu Adhikari as leader of the opposition would not go down well with Mukul Roy. Yet, it made a conscious decision to make Adhikari the face of its state unit. This is because Mukul Roy has expended himself, and there is not really much which he could offer the BJP moving forward. Giving him important positions, despite knowing that he cannot be trusted fully and is not entirely loyal to the BJP would rob the party of what it needs to win West Bengal in the upcoming elections – its Hindutva agenda.
Mukul Roy is anything but a Hindutva proponent. This is not to say that Suvendu Adhikari is – however, he seems to have shown the potential to be a pro-Hindutva leader in West Bengal in the very near future. In Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP sees their next Himanta Biswa Sarma. Adhikari can also reform the BJP’s Bengal state unit.
Mukul Roy, most definitely played a big role in bringing the BJP where it is today in West Bengal. When Roy was brought aboard in 2017 – the BJP was close to non-existent in Bengal in organizational terms. Mukul Roy joining the BJP provided a significant breath of life to the saffron party’s Bengal chapter. He brought in many leaders into the party – from the TMC’s fold of course. In terms of building the BJP organization needed to fight the 2019 and 2021 elections, Roy played a significant role.
Mukul Roy has been sending mixed signals for a long time. And the BJP’s top leadership does not like to be bullied – much less by leaders because of whom the party has just lost an election which it was hoping to win handsomely. Mukul Roy was not the only one annoyed here. In fact, the BJP too got uncomfortable with the man, known best for transporting secrets from one party to another
BJP had nothing to offer to Mukul Roy. He would not be kicked out of the party publicly, but he was unofficially dumped. Frankly, the BJP stopped giving a damn about the man. Despite his bullish manoeuvres last month, when he postured himself to be on the brink of leaving the party, the BJP did not make any grand effort to retain him. Yet, he did not lose hope and came on Twitter to say, “My fight would continue as a soldier of BJP to restore democracy in our state. I would request everyone to put the concoctions and conjectures to rest. I am resolute in my political path.” Naturally, the tweet now stands deleted.
The fact remains that the BJP had made its decision regarding Mukul Roy’s future in the party much before he decided to sever ties with it publicly. He had been dumped by the party. Mukul Roy was anticipating a Union Cabinet berth, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi is said to not have entertained the idea due to the corruption charges which the leader faces. In the backdrop of him being cold shouldered by the BJP, the TMC really became his only hope at remaining politically relevant in West Bengal.