Mamata Banerjee Shrugs Off Mukul Roy's Sudden Delhi Trip That Sparked Buzz
NDTV
Mukul Roy, who had helped found the party which Ms Banerjee leads in 1998, deserted her in 2017 for the BJP after facing charges levelled by the CBI
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee shrugged off 'l'affaire' Mukul Roy - the desertion and flight to Delhi - by her ailing trusted lieutenant for a second time, simply stating on Wednesday that the maverick politician "is BJP's MLA" and "it's his affair if he wants to go to Delhi".
Mr Roy, who had helped found the party which Ms Banerjee leads in 1998, deserted her in 2017 for the BJP after facing a number of charges levelled by the CBI in the Narada case, only to come back in 2021 after winning the assembly election on a saffron party ticket, complaining of ill-treatment there.
For the last two years, Mr Roy was hardly visible in public life and in and out of hospitals, though he clung on to both his MLA-ship which many thought he would resign from, to fight again as a Trinamool candidate as well as the chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee which by tradition goes to an opposition MLA. He did ultimately resign from the PAC's chairmanship, perhaps on sound advice by his colleagues in the Trinamool.
On Monday, his son Subhrangshu, an upcoming Trinamool leader, filed a missing person report with the police, saying Mukul Roy was missing from home. When he discovered that his father was on a flight to Delhi, he even tried to get the airline flying the politician to off-board the man, pleading he was suffering from dementia.
