Party above everyone, no one is bigger than it: Mukul Roy

Kolkata, Feb 20: With speculation rife of a rift between him and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, party senior leader Mukul Roy today said the party is above everybody.

"Party is above everyone. No one is bigger (than it)," Roy, still an all India general secretary of TMC, told reporters, in an apparent reference to the party supremo. On being pointed out that he was with the party from the beginning, he curtly replied "I am still with it".

Banerjee had clipped Roy's wings by appointing party MP Subrata Bakshi the additional all India general secretary in an organisational reshuffle on February 14. Roy declined to comment on the statement of his son and TMC MLA Subhrangshu Roy saying he (Subhrangshu) is a separate entity.

"I have nothing to say. I will tell when the time will come". TMC leadership had yesterday accused Subhrangshu of apparently breaching discipline by making certain remarks against the party.

Subhrangshu, whose role was questioned by the party for the decline in its voteshare at Kalyani Assembly segment under Bongaon Lok Sabha seat in the recent by-election, had said that at a meeting before it, in which all party MPs, MLAs were present, he was not given any responsibility.

Roy: I have nothing to say. I will tell when the time will come

"Kalyani Bidhan Sabha (an assembly segment which is part of Bongaon LS seat in North 24 Paraganas district) is not my constituency. As a result I do not know whether that responsibility is mine or not," he had said.

The party, he said, must also investigate how it lost in some areas of Assembly segments of Lok Sabha constituencies like Barrackpore, Barasat, Serampore and south Kolkata during the last Lok Sabha polls.

"No one will be spared if any intent of anti-party activity is found," TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee had stated yesterday while not ruling out disciplinary action by the party against Subhrangshu.

PTI