Mukul Roy removed as TMC's All India General Secretary

Kolkata, Feb 28: Mukul Roy who was removed as the leader of the Trinamool Congress in the Rajya Sabha yesterday has now been shunted out of his position as All India General Secretary of the Party.

Several developments around Mukul Roy in the past two weeks go on to suggest that the TMC is easing him out of the party gradually.

"Subrata Bakshi has been made the new General Secretary of All India Trinamool Congress", TMC leader Partha Chatterjee told a news agency.

Today, the TMC leadership decided to drop Roy who was once the closest aide of Mamata Banerjee as the All India General Secretary of the party.

Derek O'Brien gets preference

It is clear that the face of the party in New Delhi would be Derek O'Brien. Yesterday Derek replaced Roy as the leader of the TMC in the Rajya Sabha after it had been found that Roy was not exactly pushing hard against the government.

A letter intimating Derek as the new leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha had been sent to chairman of the house Hamid Ansari.

Writing was on the wall

The easing out of Mukul Roy became evident the moment he was summoned by the CBI in connection with the Saradha scam. He had in fact angered the TMC leadership when he confirmed a meeting of Mamata and the chairman and managing director of Saradha Group, Sudipta Sen which took place in 2010 at Kalimpong Deolo.

Sen the mastermind of the Saradha scam had met with Mamata in Deolo and this was fact was denied by the TMC. However Roy's admission came as a shocker as he was Mamata's most trusted man.

After the admission by Roy, he started being sidelined in the party and his participation was minimal in the recently held by-polls in West Bengal.

Even during the revamp of the party's structural leadership, Roy's name was missing. Roy's camp however claimed that all was well, but were also quick to add that he was unhappy that Mamata had been favouring her nephew Abhishek Banerjee over him.

The million dollar question

The million dollar question is when will Roy quit the TMC and will he join the BJP. His comments about the Railway budget in which he showed appreciation, his meeting with some top BJP leaders have all led to speculation that he may join the BJP.

However, Roy has kept all his cards close to his chest and denied any such move. The BJP too has denied any such move by Roy. However the BJP would hope that Roy works for them behind the scenes in West Bengal a state where the party feels it is up with a chance.

Roy's organizational skills have been revered as one of the best in West Bengal and he has been credited for the rise of Mamata Banerjee in the rural areas of the state to a large extent.

"If she feels the need to constitute a new committee, then it is her prerogative. I have got no comments", said Roy after the decision to drop him was taken in the All India Trinamool working committee today.

Mamata ji has lost her faith in everyone: Shahnawaz Hussain, BJP on Mukul Roy's removal from AITMC Gen Secy post pic.twitter.com/3Iir5tA6UB

— ANI (@ANI_news) February 28, 2015

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