Mukul’s absence from meet in Delhi raises eyebrows

Kolkata: Mukul Roy isn’t attending the on-going election strategy meet BJP’s Bengal leaders are having with the central command. Roy has left the capital for Bagdogra after holding primary talks with the BJP top brass on July 18.
Roy’s absence has again fuelled speculation about his working relationship with the Bengal leadership and his road ahead. Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said Roy didn’t want to attend the meeting because of the Covid-19 pandemic.Roy said after his arrival that he had to return because of “a planned date for a retina procedure”.
Ghosh’s version doesn’t put the lid on the controversy because Roy was present on the dais from where Union home minister Amit Shah had addressed the first virtual rally for Bengal. Known as a master strategist, Roy was convener of BJP’s election management committee for the 2018 panchayat polls and also for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. According to BJP leaders, Roy was also made convener of the committee for the civic elections in Bengal that had to be postponed for the Corona outbreak.
In this backdrop, the absence of the BJP national executive member has raised eyebrows. Rumour mills are agog with possibilities of Roy’s increasing differences with Bengal BJP leaders despite his efforts to put them to rest.
The controversy, instead, has come as a bother for BJP in the race to the 2021 assembly polls.
The fact remains that Roy doesn’t figure in the Bengal BJP office-bearer list. Even if a section tries to project him as a national leader, Roy is far short of it in terms of designation. The former “No. 2” in Mamata Banerjee’s party whom PM Narendra Modi and Shah used to name at 2019 LS poll gatherings in Bengal, is a national executive member, not even a national secretary like Rahul Sinha.
A host of Roy’s associates in Trinamool, namely Sabyasachi Dutta, Soumitra Khan, bureaucrat-turned politician Bharati Ghosh, and Congress MLA Dulal Bar have got organizational posts in Bengal BJP. In North 24 Parganas, BJP MP Arjun Singh is getting due prominence. An organization man, Roy knows his rapport with BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya may not be enough to get his recommendations through for candidate selection for the 2021 polls. The state BJP organization will have a greater say.
On the administrative side, Roy is not a minister like Debashree Chaudhuri or Babul Supriyo. The former railway minister’s name is among the list of “probables” from Bengal along with others like BJP MP from Alipurduar John Barla for induction during the next Cabinet expansion.
Roy’s loyalists are waiting for two key developments. BJP insiders do not rule out chances of Roy’s induction in the Union Cabinet despite the fact that the Saradha and Narada shadow hangs heavy on him. And next is Roy bagging a plum post in the all-India organization. Whatever the case, the Roy camp has no illusion that his stint in BJP is not going to be like it was in Trinamool.