BEST FRIENDS NO MORE
Mukul Roy, once Mamata Banerjee’s poster boy for all occasions, is in the doghouse. What will be his next move?
Trusted aide Mukul Roy is no longer in Didi’s good books. What’s his next move?
Is the BJP, which needs a strong local face in West Bengal, one of Mukul Roy’s options?
Is it splitsville for Mamata Banerjee and Mukul Roy? West Bengal’s hottest political jodi, which crafted the end of Left Front rule in 2011, systematically decimating it in subsequent elections, appears headed for a break-up. “If Mamata is the heart of the Trinamool Congress, Mukul is the head. It looks like the heart and head are drifting apart,” says a Trinamool Congress leader.
Mukul, over the years considered Mamata’s closest confidant, troubleshooter and political advisor, is being gradually stripped of his clout. His most recent setback has been his removal as the party’s observer in Tripura, after six Trinamool MLAs cross-voted in favour of the NDA’s Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential election and then switched over to the BJP, and over a dozen MPs defied the party whip in the vice-presidential election. Though Mukul has dismissed claims of joining the BJP, frequent sightings of him at Union minister Arun Jaitley’s house have only thickened the plot.
For now, though, Mamata has desisted from precipitating the crisis. After the vice-presidential election, she invited Mukul over on Raksha Bandhan to send out a message of unity. The seasoned Mukul, too, flaunted Didi’s rakhi and swore loyalty to the Trinamool Congress. Two days later, on August 9, he even shared the dais with Mamata in Midnapore as she announced her ‘BJP Quit India’ movement—a picture of contrast from the July 21 Martyr’s Day rally where Mukul was relegated to the back row on stage. As a Trinamool Congress MP points out, “It took less than a month to prove to the party that Mukul Roy is indispensable, as evident from the presidential election.”
Until 2015, Mamata’s vote of confidence in Mukul was intrinsic to the functioning of the Trinamool Congress, formed in 1998 when she broke away from the Congress. In March 2012, much against the reservations of then prime minister Manmohan Singh, Mamata had got party man Dinesh Trivedi removed as railway minister over a contro-
versial fare hike announced in the Union budget and got Mukul to replace him. “Mukul was Didi’s natural choice because power and post with him was as good as vesting these with her,” says a Trinamool Congress MLA.
Right through the Trinamool’s meteoric rise to power in Bengal, if Mamata possessed the magnetic pull to attract millions to her rallies, Mukul ensured that the euphoria on the ground translated into votes. Party insiders vouch for his flair with the nitty-gritty of electioneering. “Mukul not only knew party members in every block, panchayat and district, he invested time connecting with them,” says a party MP.
Adds a Trinamool minister, preferring to remain anonymous: “Mukul knew which booth had a vote deficit and how to make up for the loss, beating the Marxists at their own game of scientific rigging. He perfected the art to the extent that the crowd that cheered for Mamata actually voted for her.”
Mukul is considered by many to have played a crucial role in containing a Maoist insurgency in West Midnapore. As the party’s second in command, Mukul’s powers extended to mobilising funds, controlling transfers/ postings of police officers to the party’s benefit and ensuring preferred appointees in the administration. Involving resourceful people, such as K.D. Singh, in the party was Mukul’s idea. “Mukul also had good relations with Saradha group chief Sudipta Sen,” says a Trinamool Congress leader. “Before absconding, Sen had met Mukul at his residence late at night, and the two were in touch over phone till the Saradha boss was picked up from Sonmarg (in Kashmir) in April 2013.”
Mukul’s relationship with Mamata showed the first signs of fracture in early 2015. Emerging from a five-hour grilling by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Saradha chit fund scam on January 31, 2015, Mukul expressed faith in the investigating agency and offered full cooperation. The statement was a complete departure from Mamata’s line that the CBI was being used by the NDA government to fix political rivals. Ironically, prior to Mukul’s visit to the CBI office in Kolkata, Mamata had threatened to hit the streets if any harm came her trusted lieutenant’s way.
Mamata, it is learnt, had called up Mukul immediately after the CBI interrogation, expecting to get details. But Mukul hung up on her, promising to return the call, which he never did. It was only a matter of time before the axe fell. In February 2015, he was removed as the party’s all-India general secretary, taken off the working committee and relieved of the prestigious post of leader of the Trinamool Congress in the Rajya Sabha.
Given his indispensability in Mamata’s war room, Mukul has been a thorn in the flesh for many Trinamool leaders, including Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee, who aspires to take the mantle from his aunt. When