Mamata Banerjee wary of Mukul Roy-BJP bonding, but tells TMC leaders to remain silent

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress is worried about Mukul Roy’s recent moves to strengthen personal bonds with top BJP leaders in Delhi, but the party boss Mamata Banerjee has asked her key leaders not to make any statement in the media about the issue. She held a meeting with her key leaders in the Trinamool Bhavan late on Wednesday evening and asked them to “wait and watch” instead of making any hasty statement on the issue.

In the past two days, Roy held talks with Union home minister Rajnath Singh and finance minister Arun Jaitley in Delhi. He is also spending most of his time in the capital and busy developing relations with top BJP leaders and ministers.

Interestingly, the CBI which on Wednesday, filed a supplementary chargesheet in the Saradha chit fund scam, did not name Roy even though the probe agency named Madan Mitra, state transport minister and party MP Kunal Ghosh and former MP Srinjoy Bose.

CBI’s “soft approach” towards Roy has made Trinamool leaders suspicious and many of them are now convinced that Roy is making efforts to quit them to join BJP in the days ahead. Interestingly, Bengal BJP is also maintaining silence about Roy.

Mamata herself is watching Roy’s moves in Delhi and held a crucial meeting with her leaders in Trinamool Bhavan late on Wednesday evening.

Mamata had stopped going to Trinamool Bhavan which was Roy’s bastion and as the all-India general secretary of the party, he used to run the organisation from the state party headquarters. But during the past two months, Roy is avoiding Trinamool Bhavan. Whenever he stays in Kolkata, he spends most of his time at Nizam Palace here to meet his close and trusted leaders.

But Mamata late on Wednesday evening, rushed to Trinamool Bhavan along with Sugata Bose, the party MP and held meeting with senior party leaders and asked them to refrain themselves from making any comment on Roy issue.

On Thursday, Mamata held a meeting with her MLAs in the state Assembly and expressed her displeasure as Trinamool’s vote share at Kalyani in Bongaon had reduced during the recent by-elections. Interestingly, Roy’s son and party MLA Subhransu was in charge of Kalyanai assembly segment.