Mukul Roy, former Mamata aide, is BJP poll body’s head for Bengal

Former railway minister Mukul Roy will be convener of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s election management committee in West Bengal, the party announced Wednesday. A former confidant of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Roy was credited with building a strong organisational network of the Trinamool Congress that eventually ended the uninterrupted 34-year rule of the Left Front in the state.

Roy, who enjoyed the number 2 status in Trinamool Congress, crossed over to the BJP in November last year after he fell out with Banerjee, who was seen promoting her parliamentarian nephew Abhishek Banerjee within the party hierarchy.

Arvind Menon, an RSS leader, who worked in Madhya Pradesh as BJP’s general secretary (organization) for years has been made the co in-charge of party affairs for West Bengal. He will assist party’s general secretary in-charge, Kailash Vijayvargiya, another fellow politician from Madhya Pradesh. Menon was shifted out of Madhya Pradesh in April 2016 and made the in-charge of BJP’s department and projects. Menon, too, has experience in working within the BJP’s organisation set-up and is credited with helping strengthen party’s network in the central state.

The assembly election in West Bengal is due in 2021.

The BJP, currently, has two members of parliament from West Bengal, SS Ahluwalia and Babul Supriyo, who are members of the union council of ministers. Party president Amit Shah recently claimed that the BJP will win 22 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal.

Health minister JP Nadda has been appointed the in-charge for Telangana, another state where the BJP’s is eying expansion. Local elections in Telangana are likely to be held later this year.

Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan will be BJP’s election in-charge for Madhya Pradesh and Prakash Javadekar for Rajasthan.

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