Who was Mukul Roy? The architect of West Bengal’s changing political order

Former Union Railway Minister and senior West Bengal politician Mukul Roy passed away on Sunday at a private hospital in Kolkata following a prolonged illness. He was 71. A founding member of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) and later a prominent leader in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Roy played a significant role in shaping West Bengal’s political landscape over the past two decades.

Born on April 17, 1954, Roy began his political journey in the Youth Congress and went on to become a central figure in two rival political formations that shaped Bengal’s contemporary history.

How did Mukul Roy rise from Youth Congress to TMC power centre?


Roy became a close associate of Mamata Banerjee at a time when she was emerging as a prominent leader in West Bengal. In 1998, he left the Congress along with Banerjee and others to co-found the All India Trinamool Congress.

As the TMC expanded, Roy rose rapidly within the organisation and was appointed national general secretary in 2006. He played a key role in building the party’s grassroots network and was regarded as one of its principal organisational strategists.

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He was instrumental in the Trinamool Congress’s 2011 Assembly election victory, which ended the Left Front’s 34-year rule in West Bengal.

What roles did Mukul Roy play at the national level?

Roy was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2006 and emerged as a leading TMC figure in New Delhi. During the second term of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA II) government, he joined the Union Council of Ministers.

He first served as Minister of State for Shipping and was later appointed Union Railway Minister in March 2012.

Why did Mukul Roy leave TMC, join BJP and return again?

Roy’s relationship with the TMC leadership deteriorated after his name surfaced in investigations related to the Saradha chit fund scam and the Narada sting operation. In 2015, he was removed as the party’s national general secretary and was eventually expelled in 2017.

In November 2017, he joined the BJP. He was later appointed the party’s national vice president and played an important role in expanding the BJP’s organisational network in West Bengal.

The BJP’s performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections winning 18 of West Bengal’s 42 seats marked a major breakthrough in the state’s politics. Roy contested the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections on a BJP ticket from Krishnanagar and won.

However, he returned to the Trinamool Congress shortly after the 2021 election results were declared. His switch led to legal proceedings under the anti-defection law. The Calcutta High Court revoked his Assembly membership, but the order was later stayed by the Supreme Court.

Mukul Roy's disqualification from West Bengal Assembly

In 2025, the Calcutta High Court disqualified BJP leader Mukul Roy from West Bengal Assembly under anti-defection law. The verdict, according to Leader of Opposition (LoP) Suvendu Adhikari, who had moved the court, is "a victory of the Indian Constitution".

More than four years back, Roy defected to the Trinamool after becoming a first-time MLA on a BJP ticket from Krishnanagar Uttar in 2021.

The court observed that Roy “is declared to have become disqualified in terms of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India and the Rules of 1986 with effect from June 11, 2021.”

The HC said Roy is “declared to have suffered disqualification with effect from June 11, 2021” and “as the Chairman of Public Accounts Committee is set aside.” Roy was appointed as Chairman of PAC in the state assembly.