A 1,316-day cycle was completed on Friday with the ghar-wapsi (homecoming) of Trinamul’s former No. 2 Mukul Roy, welcomed back with an uttoriyo (ceremonial scarf) and an apparently warm hug by current No. 2 Abhishek Banerjee, in the presence of party leader Mamata Banerjee and others.

The 1,316-day or 188-week cycle began on November 3, 2017, when Roy left for the BJP to eventually become national vice-president. Roy had left Trinamul purportedly on account of two concerns: his future in Trinamul, given the rise of Abhhishek, Mamata’s nephew, and the hounding by central probe agencies over his alleged involvement in the Saradha deposit-mobilisation default case and the Narada “sting” operation case.

Mamata, who answered most questions fielded to Roy in a brief news meet, ruled out the first as “bajey kotha (tommyrot)”, and, for the second, demanded answers from the BJP over its alleged dearth of probity instead.

“Our party is already strong…. Mukul is an old boy from our family. He too has faced a lot of torture, intimidation with misuse of central agencies…. I think, coming back here, Mukul got peace of mind. His health had been deteriorating there. Maybe he wasn’t able to articulate it,” Mamata said. “BJP kora jaay na (It is impossible to be in the BJP).”

Roy rejoined Trinamul with son Subhranshu, Trinamul’s former Bijpur MLA, who had followed his father to the BJP and contested unsuccessfully from the same constituency this summer. He was surrounded, besides Mamata and Abhishek, by Trinamul seniors Partha Chatterjee, Subrata Bakshi, Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim and Javed Ahmed Khan.

“I feel very good… seeing so many old, familiar faces of the people I worked with. I feel wonderful that I could come out of the BJP…,” said Mukul, who played key roles for the BJP in the 2018 panchayat and 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Bengal, but had been sulking since his role in the 2021 Assembly election was diminished.

Roy, who just won the first election of his life as the MLA of Krishnagar North, said he would issue a letter detailing his reasons for quitting the BJP soon.

Sources attributed it to his need to secure his son’s political future.

The son, who played a pivotal role in engineering his father’s return, could be rewarded with Trinamul candidature from the Krishnagar North seat, for a bypoll, as Roy is likely to resign as MLA and ascend to his more familiar turf of the Rajya Sabha, with two current vacancies for Trinamul.

Subhranshu is also likely to be made a working-president of the party’s youth wing, under its newly-appointed state chief Sayani Ghosh.