Mukul Roy (born 17 April 1954) is an Indian politician from

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

belonging to the

All India Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress (English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the cur ...

. He has also served as a

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. I ...

in the Shipping Ministry and later Ministry of Railways during the second UPA government. Before the creation of Trinamool Congress, he was a member of

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

. Between 2017 to 2021, Roy left Trinamool Congress to join

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

. After

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal since 20 May 2011, the first woman to hold the office. Having served many times as a ...

resigned as the Railway Minister to become the

Chief Minister of West Bengal The Chief Minister of West Bengal is the representative of the Government of India in the state of West Bengal and the head of the executive branch of the Government of West Bengal. The chief minister is head of the Council of Ministers and ap ...

, Roy was handed additional charge of the

Ministry of Railways A Ministry of Railways is a Cabinet department that exists or has existed in many Commonwealth states as well as others. It generally occurs in countries where railroad transportation is a particularly important part of the national infrastructure ...

after Mamata expressed her desire that her party retain the Ministry of Railways and personally recommended Roy to Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

. He had resigned from Trinamool Congress on 25 September 2017; later he was suspended from the party for six years for anti-party activities. He also resigned from

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

membership on 11 October 2017. He rejoined

on 11 June 2021 along with his son in presence of

Educational qualifications

He did his Bachelor of Science from Calcutta University. He also earned an MA degree in public administration from the Madurai Kamaraj University in 2006.

Political career

Roy started his political career as Youth Congress leader and became close to

who was also associated with Youth Congress.

All India Trinamool Congress

Roy was a founding member of

which was formed in January 1998 as a breakaway faction of the

led by

. Soon he became the party's face in New Delhi and was made general secretary in 2006. In 2001 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, he was TMC candidate from Jagatdal constituency and got 56,741 votes but lost. In April 2006, Roy was elected to

and was a leader of

from 28 May 2009 to 20 March 2012 in

. In UPA II was appointed Minister of State in the Ministry of Shipping first, then Minister of State in the

when

resigned. On 11 July 2011, when Prime Minister

directed Mukul Roy to visit the site of the derailment of the Guwahati-Puri Express in

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

, he openly defied him. This brought a lot of displeasure among the political circles and he was shunted out of the Railways portfolio in the latest cabinet reshuffle on 12 July 2011. In 2012, he was the subject of a controversy regarding the Railway Budget. This happened after

expressed her discontent with the increase in passenger fares, and demanded the resignation of Dinesh Trivedi, Railway Minister. After Dinesh resigned, Mukul became the

Railway Minister of India The Minister of Railways is the head of the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, i ...

and he removed the fare hike introduced by the former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, to much criticism. With the exit of Trinamool from UPA coalition due to an allowance of 51% FDI in retail and aviation sector, Mukul Roy's tenure of railway minister came to an end in the month of September 2012. Roy ran a special train called "DU Gyan Uday Express" a

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

worded statement, which took 1000 students of

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...

to places like

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

, Goa and

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

during the summer break of 2012. An application has been submitted to the Election Commission for the formation of the new political party called

and Mukul aide Amitabha Majumdar has been named as the President. The head office of the party is located in Dinhata, in

North Bengal North Bengal ( bn, উত্তরবঙ্গ/উত্তর বাংলা) is a term used for the north-western part of Bangladesh and northern part of West Bengal. The Bangladesh part denotes the Rajshahi Division and Rangpur Division. G ...

. Roy and Mamata had a fall out in 2015 when his name came up in Saradha scam as well as in

Narada sting operation The Narada sting operation was a sting operation carried out by Mathew Samuel targeting high-ranking officials and politicians of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC). It showed several politicians and a high-ranked police officer accepting ...

in which TMC leaders are involved. Roy was suspended from the party for six years as he met senior BJP leaders like Finance Minister

Arun Jaitley Arun Jaitley (28 December 1952 – 24 August 2019) was an Indian politician and attorney. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Jaitley served as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Government of India from 2014 to 2019. Jai ...

and BJP general secretary

Kailash Vijayvargiya Kailash Vijayvargiya (born 13 May 1956) is an Indian politician serving as National General Secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party . He started his political career in the Indore Bharatiya Janata Party, and was the mayor of Indore, a six-time legi ...

. He has resigned from Trinamool Congress on 25 September 2017. After that Roy also resigned from

membership on 11 October 2017.

Bharatiya Janata Party

Roy formally joined the

on 3 November 2017. Upon joining the party, he said that he felt proud of working under Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

. He successfully contested the

2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election The 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election for 292 of the 294 constituencies in West Bengal was held between 27 March to 29 April 2021 in eight phases. Voting for the two remaining constituencies was delayed to 30 September 2021. The ...

and won.

"Rejoining" Trinamool Congress

On 11 June 2021, Roy rejoined the

along with his son Subhranshu Roy in the presence of

and others. On 25 June 2021, he was elected as a member of

PAC Pac or PAC may refer to: Military * Rapid Deployment Force (Malaysia), an armed forces unit * Patriot Advanced Capability, of the MIM-104 Patriot missile * Civil Defense Patrols (''Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil''), Guatemalan militia and paramil ...

by the speaker of

West Bengal Legislative Assembly The West Bengal Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located in the B. B. D. Bagh area of Kolkata, the capital of the state. Members of the Legislative assembly are directly elected by t ...

and later became the chairman of the PAC on 14 July 2021. Roy set foot in Krishnanagar, his constituency. He first came to Krishnanagar Bhatjangla on 27 June 2021. He was then greeted by

activists wearing a wreath. Soon after, a quarrel broke out between

activists over the reception of Mukul Roy. On 19 January 2022, his lawyer told the Speaker that he is still in the BJP and he never rejoined the ruling Trinamool Congress party. Accordingly the Speaker dismissed Roy's disqualification as legislator under anti-defection law.

References

External links

Profile on Rajya Sabha website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roy, Mukul Living people Indian anti-communists Trinamool Congress politicians from West Bengal University of Calcutta alumni Madurai Kamaraj University alumni West Bengal politicians 1954 births Railway Ministers of India Rajya Sabha members from West Bengal People from North 24 Parganas district Politicians from Kolkata Members of the Cabinet of India 20th-century Indian politicians 21st-century Indian politicians Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from West Bengal Indian National Congress politicians from West Bengal West Bengal MLAs 2021–2026