Senior politician Mukul Roy, a former Railway Minister from West Bengal and one of the founding leaders of the Trinamool Congress, passed away early Monday at a private hospital in Kolkata. He was 73.
His son, Subhranshu Roy, confirmed that he breathed his last a little after 1.30 a.m. Roy had been under treatment for several medical complications for a prolonged period and was not responding to therapy, according to close associates.
Roy was once considered the second-in-command in the All India Trinamool Congress, serving as general secretary and a close confidant of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
He was among the first nine leaders who approached the Election Commission of India in the late 1990s to register the Trinamool Congress after Banerjee broke away from the Congress.
He later served as Railway Minister and held ministerial portfolios in Shipping and Waterways, and Urban Development in the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-II government formed in 2009.
Over time, Roy distanced himself from the Trinamool leadership and was removed as general secretary. In 2017, he severed ties with the party, resigned from the Rajya Sabha, and joined the BJP, remaining there until 2021.
In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly election, he won from the Krishnanagar (Uttar) constituency in Nadia district as a BJP candidate. Days after the results, which returned Banerjee to power for a third consecutive term, he rejoined the Trinamool Congress but did not resign as an MLA, continuing officially as a BJP legislator.
Assembly Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay rejected the BJP’s plea to cancel Roy’s membership, stating it could not be annulled as he had been elected on a BJP ticket. Roy was later appointed Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.
The BJP moved the Calcutta High Court, which on November 12, 2025, cancelled his membership. The order was challenged in the Supreme Court of India, where a bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant stayed the High Court’s decision on January 16. Roy’s death marks the end of a colourful and often controversial political journey.
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