The BJP’s newly elected MLAs met in the Bengal Assembly for the first time on Friday, deciding to boycott the House till post-results violence in the state stopped completely, but the absence of the party’s national vice-president Mukul Roy created a buzz.
Former railway minister Roy — previously Trinamul’s de facto No 2 who had switched sides to the BJP in 2017 — won the first election of his life as the BJP’s Krishnagar North candidate, emerging as one of the saffron camp’s 77 MLAs in the 294-seat House.
But the 67-year-old’s absence from the crucial meeting, which followed a conspicuous exchange of pleasantries with Trinamul state president Subrata Bakshi and his departure before the BJP’s state unit chief Dilip Ghosh’s arrival, triggered speculation.
“Mukulda had to go back to Krishnagar. Some cases of violence against our workers were reported from there, so he had to rush. He informed me,” said Ghosh when asked about Roy’s absence.
However, several state unit functionaries of the BJP refused to buy Ghosh’s version.
Three of them said that Roy — who chief minister Mamata Banerjee had repeatedly spoken fondly of in her otherwise aggressive campaign against the BJP — had been “inattentive” and “disinterested” in the saffron camp for a while now.
“In almost all recent meetings, Mukulda was present, but he stayed quiet, spoke only when spoken to, and was distant and preoccupied,” said one of them.
A functionary of the party’s state women’s wing said the veteran backroom boy was unhappy with the party fielding him as a candidate. She said Roy had expressed discontent among his confidants but said he couldn’t refuse home minister Amit Shah’s personal request.
In the 2018 panchayat and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Roy had been placed at the helm of the BJP’s election committee and led the party to unprecedented success. In the 2021 Assembly polls, the central leadership — spearheaded by Shah — commandeered the state unit and Roy was left with little to do.
Roy’s diminished role — despite his reputation as a master strategist with the ability to deliver electoral triumphs — had upset him, said sources.
“Mukulda isn’t happy with the party….He had been issuing vital warnings, identifying crucial inflection points, but his advice went unheeded. For instance, he had advised against an all-out campaign with polarisation, saying it would not produce the desired results in Bengal. Now we see he was right,” said the source in the women’s wing.
“We won’t be surprised if he takes a drastic decision about his political future shortly,” she added, pointing out that Roy’s foremost concern would be to ensure his 38-year-old son Subhranshu’s political future.
Subhranshu, a two-term MLA from Trinamul, contested from his Bijpur seat on a BJP ticket this time and lost.
There are murmurs within the BJP that many of its 77 MLAs — and 18 Bengal MPs — are in touch with the Trinamul leadership, looking for ways to defect. The list of probable names includes Roy.
Roy has largely been silent on the BJP’s Bengal poll debacle. On Friday too, he maintained his silence.
While leaving the Assembly, Roy told journalists: “I’ll not say a word to anyone today. When I decide to speak, I’ll call everybody and speak.”
At the meeting, the BJP’s legislative party decided against attending any House proceedings till the alleged persecution of BJP workers and supporters stopped in Bengal.
“No BJP legislator will come to the Assembly, unless the violence is fully stopped. They will not participate in the Speaker’s election either,” said Ghosh after the party meeting.
