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

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

. He has also served as a

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

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, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

. Between 2017 and 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. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

. In 2021, he left BJP and joined TMC. After

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current List of chief ministers of West Bengal, chief minister of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal since 2 ...

resigned as the Railway Minister to become the

Chief Minister of West Bengal The chief minister of West Bengal (IAST: Paścim Baṅgēr Mukhya Mantrī) is the '' de facto'' head of the executive branch of the Government of West Bengal, the subnational authority of the Indian state of West Bengal. The chief minister is ...

, Roy was handed additional charge of the Ministry of Railways after Mamata expressed her desire that her party retain the Ministry of Railways and personally recommended Roy to Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (26 September 1932 – 26 December 2024) was an Indian economist, bureaucrat, academician, and statesman, who served as the prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He was the fourth longest-serving prime minister after Jaw ...

. 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 Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

membership on 11 October 2017. He rejoined

All India Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress (; AITC), simply known as Trinamool Congress, is an Indian political party that is mainly influential in the state of West Bengal. It was founded by Mamata Banerjee on 1 January 1998 as a breakaway faction f ...

on 11 June 2021 along with his son in presence of

Educational qualifications

He did his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

from

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

. 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 Ministry of Railways 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 Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

, 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 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 worded statement, which took 1000 students of

Delhi University The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...

to places like

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled 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 ...

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, Goa and

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

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 ( , Uttar Banga) is a cross-border cultural–geographic region consisting of the north-western areas of Bangladesh as well as the northern part of the West Bengal state of India. Bounded to the east by the Jamuna and in the south ...

. Roy and Mamata had a fall out in 2015 when his name came up in Saradha scam as well as in Narada sting operation 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 and BJP general secretary

Kailash Vijayvargiya Kailash Vijayvargiya (born 13 May 1956) is an Indian politician Serving as the Cabinet Minister of Madhya Pradesh (Bharatiya Janata Party). He started his political career in the Indore Bharatiya Janata Party, and was the mayor of Indore, a six ...

. 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 who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

. He successfully contested the

2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election The 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election was the 17th quinquennial List of Indian state legislative assembly elections, legislative election held in Elections in West Bengal, West Bengal, to elect List of constituencies of the West ...

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: Aviation * IATA code PAC Albrook "Marcos A. Gelabert" International Airport in Panama City, Panama * Pacific Aerospace Corporation, New Zealand, manufacturer of aircraft: ** PAC 750XL ** PAC Cresco ** PAC CT/4 ** PA ...

by the speaker of

West Bengal Legislative Assembly The West Bengal Legislative Assembly (ISO 15919, ISO: ''Paścimabaṅga Vidhānasabhā'') is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of West Bengal, located in eastern India. It consists of 294 members directly elected from single-seat ...

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 the official website of

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