Mukul Roy is determined not to fall in line with his party’s agenda. Two days after Mamata Banerjee stripped him of all posts citing his absence at party programmes, Mukul again skipped a Trinamool demonstration in Delhi on Monday. But, Mukul is also equally determined not to quit Trinamool. And, it is the presence of a defiant Mukul in the party ahead of the civic polls that is giving the party leadership the jitters.
On Monday, Mukul told mediapersons he won’t join any other party — BJP or Congress — till he comes clean on the Saradha scam. BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh, too, scotched all rumours of his joining the party saying BJP will not induct anybody with even the faintest link to a scam. Singh also rubbished reports of Mukul meeting party president Amit Shah. “It is an utter lie. There was no meeting between Amit Shah and Mukul Roy,” Singh said.
Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury had earlier denied efforts by Congress to rope in Mukul.
Senior Trinamool leaders feel a defiant Mukul within the party could be deadly for the party before the civic polls. They have got feedback that the former national secretary is in constant touch with disgruntled elements in the party. They fear he may field several independent candidates in the 93 municipalities that go to poll to queer Trinamool’s pitch with tacit support from Opposition parties. Mukul won’t find it difficult to gather such independents as many sitting councillors are unlikely to get party tickets.
More worrying for the Trinamool bosses is the possibility of sabotage from within. The party got a taste of it in the Kalyani and Haringhata segments of Bongaon Lok Sabha during the recent bypoll. Afraid of the Trojan Horses that might play spoilsport, Trinamool leaders have started purging Mukul loyalists in Nadia and North 24-Parganas. However, the purging has also evoked mistrust among party workers in some places.
The transition from 206-North Avenue, Kolkata, to 181-Southern Avenue, New Delhi, is more or less the growth graph of Mukul Roy in Bengal’s political arena - from a fringe neta to the only other unquestioned voice in Trinamool Congress.
Indoctrinated into Marx and Engels in childhood, it is ironical that Mamata Banerjee hand-picked Mukul to lead her fight to uproot the Marxists in Bengal. After the transition from a firebrand SFI leader to Mamata’s most shrewd tactician, the 60-year-old Mukul now finds himself at yet another political crossroads.
The Kanchrapara boy who loves T20 cricket is now biding time in a strategic time-out. Always careful with words, he says very little about himself. “I have tried to be with people in their sorrows and happiness. This is why they keep coming to me,” he says. In the next breath he points out: “Let me tell you that on December 17, 1997, when I first applied to form the party (Trinamool) under the People’s Representation Act, the present chairperson (Mamata Banerjee) was not a member of it. When I worked as the only general secretary, the party was simply zero. Now it has 34 MPs in Lok Sabha and is in power in Bengal.”
As so often earlier, what he leaves unsaid gives his party the jitters. There are those that wonder if the master strategist has an ace up his sleeve.
