Kolkata, Feb 23: Former Railway Minister Mukul Roy, once regarded as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s most trusted aide and the Trinamool Congress’s principal strategist, died of cardiac arrest at a private hospital here early Monday. He was 71.
Roy is survived by his son, Subhranshu Roy. According to family members, he passed away around 1.30 am at a hospital in Salt Lake. He had been suffering from multiple ailments over the past two years and had been in and out of hospital. The family said he had also been diagnosed with dementia and had recently slipped into a coma.
His body will be taken to his residence before the last rites are performed later in the day.
A former Union minister and two-time Rajya Sabha MP from West Bengal, Roy’s four-decade political career saw stints in the Congress, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP.
He began his political journey with the Youth Congress and later joined hands with Banerjee when she broke away from the Congress to form the All India Trinamool Congress in 1998. As a founding member, Roy emerged as one of the party’s key organisational pillars and went on to serve as its general secretary.
Elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2006, he became the TMC’s leader in the Upper House in 2009 and played a crucial role as the party’s troubleshooter in Delhi. During the UPA-2 government, when the TMC was a constituent, Roy served as Minister of State for Shipping before taking over as Railway Minister in 2012.
Following the TMC’s landmark victory in the 2011 West Bengal Assembly elections that ended 34 years of Left Front rule, Roy was instrumental in consolidating the party’s organisational strength across several districts, overseeing key political shifts from the CPI(M) and the Congress.
However, his career was marked by controversies, including his name surfacing in the Saradha chit fund case and the Narada sting operation.
In 2017, his relations with the TMC leadership deteriorated, and he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, a move that reshaped West Bengal’s political landscape. Tasked with strengthening the BJP in the state, Roy was credited with helping expand the party’s base ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, where it won 18 of the state’s 42 seats.
He was elected as a BJP MLA from Krishnanagar Uttar in the 2021 Assembly elections but returned to the TMC within months, triggering legal and political disputes. He was subsequently disqualified as an MLA under the anti-defection law.
Though he rejoined the TMC, Roy never regained his earlier political prominence. As his health declined, he gradually withdrew from active politics.
Often described as the ‘Chanakya’ of West Bengal politics during his prime, Roy remained a pivotal figure in the state’s shifting political landscape — equally at ease in Delhi’s power corridors and Kolkata’s political backrooms.
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari condoled his death, saying in a post on X, “Deeply disheartened to learn about the sad demise of senior politician Shri Mukul Roy. My sincere condolences to his family. Praying that his soul attains eternal peace. (Agencies)
