Former railway minister and ex-TMC leader Mukul Roy dies at 71

Veteran politician and former railway minister Mukul Roy passed away in the early hours of Monday following a cardiac arrest, bringing the curtain down on a long and eventful political career that spanned decades and party lines. He was 71.

Roy breathed his last at 1.30 am at a private hospital, his son Subhranshu Roy said, adding that the senior leader had been in a coma for several days prior to his demise. His death marks the end of a turbulent yet influential chapter in West Bengal’s political landscape.

A founding member of the All India Trinamool Congress, established in 1998, Roy was widely regarded as one of the principal strategists behind the party’s early organisational expansion. Known for his backroom acumen and grassroots network, he rose swiftly through the ranks, emerging for a time as the party’s undisputed second-in-command.

In 2011, when the Trinamool Congress was part of the UPA-2 government at the Centre, Roy was entrusted with the Railway Ministry, becoming Union railway minister. His tenure coincided with a politically transformative period in West Bengal, as the Trinamool ended the decades-long Left Front rule in the state. He was also elected twice to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal, underscoring his prominence within national politics.

However, political equations shifted dramatically over the years. Following differences with the Trinamool leadership, Roy joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2017, a move that sent ripples across the state’s political arena. In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, he won from the Krishnanagar Uttar constituency on a BJP ticket. Yet, in a twist emblematic of his unpredictable political journey, he returned to the Trinamool Congress shortly after the polls.

Roy’s career was marked by strategic manoeuvring, dramatic realignments, and an enduring influence on Bengal’s power politics. With his passing, West Bengal loses a seasoned tactician whose role in shaping the state’s contemporary political narrative will long be remembered.

With PTI inputs