TMC gets the jitters as Mukul Roy refuses to quit

KOLKATA: Mukul Roy is determined not to fall in line with his party’s agenda. Two days after Mamata Banerjee stripped him of all posts citing his absence at party programmes, Mukul again skipped a Trinamool demonstration in Delhi on Monday. But, Mukul is also equally determined not to quit Trinamool. And, it is the presence of a defiant Mukul in the party ahead of the civic polls that is giving the party leadership the jitters.
On Monday, Mukul told mediapersons he won’t join any other party — BJP or Congress — till he comes clean on the Saradha scam. BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh, too, scotched all rumours of his joining the party saying BJP will not induct anybody with even the faintest link to a scam. Singh also rubbished reports of Mukul meeting party president Amit Shah. “It is an utter lie. There was no meeting between Amit Shah and Mukul Roy,” Singh said.
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Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury had earlier denied efforts by Congress to rope in Mukul.
Senior Trinamool leaders feel a defiant Mukul within the party could be deadly for the party before the civic polls. They have got feedback that the former national secretary is in constant touch with disgruntled elements in the party. They fear he may field several independent candidates in the 93 municipalities that go to poll to queer Trinamool’s pitch with tacit support from Opposition parties. Mukul won’t find it difficult to gather such independents as many sitting councillors are unlikely to get party tickets.
More worrying for the Trinamool bosses is the possibility of sabotage from within. The party got a taste of it in the Kalyani and Haringhata segments of Bongaon Lok Sabha during the recent bypoll. Afraid of the Trojan Horses that might play spoilsport, Trinamool leaders have started purging Mukul loyalists in Nadia and North 24-Parganas. However, the purging has also evoked mistrust among party workers in some places.
The transition from 206-North Avenue, Kolkata, to 181-Southern Avenue, New Delhi, is more or less the growth graph of Mukul Roy in Bengal's political arena - from a fringe neta to the only other unquestioned voice in Trinamool Congress.
Indoctrinated into Marx and Engels in childhood, it is ironical that Mamata Banerjee hand-picked Mukul to lead her fight to uproot the Marxists in Bengal.After the transition from a firebrand SFI leader to Mamata's most shrewd tactician, the 60-year-old Mukul now finds himself at yet another political crossroads.
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Decades ago, when Mukul became the SFI unit secretary at Naihati's Rishi Bamkim Chandra College, it was no surprise. It was believed that the son of CPM's Kanchrapara local committee secretary Jugal Nath Roy would see no other political colour. It wasn't to be. Sometime in March 1980, Mukul met his political mentor Mrinal Singha Roy or Abu. It was at Abu's prodding — who Mukul sees as his political guru — that he chose to join Congress.

Four years later, in 1984, another leader began making waves in Bengal. All the buzz was over a plucky 29-year-old woman who had done the impossible by defeating CPM veteran Somnath Chatterjee in the Left stronghold of Jadavpur in the Lok Sabha polls. Mamata Banerjee had made her mark. It was destiny that the two met the same year and struck an instant rapport.
Mukul was a complete contrast to Mamata's brand of politics. Always the reticent speaker, he preferred to remain in the background, dealing with party workers and leaders rather than the masses. His multi-tasking skills made him indispensible to party colleagues.For example, between 2002 and 2005, when he was criss-crossing Bengal to build Trinamool's foundation, he was also the non-executive director of United Bank of India as a “social worker", As a senior leader put it: "Mukul Roy's ability to look at the big ger picture sets him apart from the rest. So too, his constant connect with grassroots workers. If he poses a threat to the party leadership now, it is precisely for these reasons."
Mukul became a member of Rajya Sabha in April 2006 and again in 2012. In April 2008, he was appointed Trinamool's all-India general secretary - it wasn't long before he had the reins of the party organizations. His clout was on a gravity defying trajectory. In May 2009, he became minister-of-state, shipping. When Mamata resigned as railway minister after becoming chief minister, she asked Mukul to handle its additional charge. And when a livid Mamata asked Dinesh Trivedi to step down after he raised train fares, it was Mukul who took his place and rolled back the hike. Mukul was the architect of Trinamool's stunning electoral victories that eventually led to the historic routing of CPM in 2011. If Mamata was the icon that won the masses, Mukul was the machine that kept the vote mill churning. He was Mamata's chief strategist and Trinamool's No. 1 go-to person.
And then Saradha came along.
Mukul stands at a political crossroads today. The Kanchrapara boy who loves T20 cricket is now biding time in a strategic time-out. Always careful with words, he says very little about himself. “I have tried to be with people in their sorrows and happiness. This is why they keep coming to me," he says. In the next breath he points out: "Let me tell you that on December 17, 1997, when I first applied to form the party (Trinamool) under the People's Representation Act, the present chairperson (Mamata Banerjee) was not a member of it. When I worked as the only general secretary, the party was simply zero. Now it has 34 MPs in Lok Sabha and is in power in Bengal."
As so often earlier, what he leaves unsaid gives his party the jitters. There are those that wonder if the master strategist has an ace up his sleeve.