Mukul Roy, former Union minister, dies at 71

Former Union minister Mukul Roy died on Monday. He was 71.

Roy had been admitted to a hospital in Kolkata and was suffering from several ailments, The Indian Express quoted his son as saying.

He had not been in active politics in recent years because of his ailments.

The former Rajya Sabha MP was part of the Congress till 1998, after which he became a founding member of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress. He was the general secretary of the party between 1998 and 2015.

He served as the Union railway minister in the United Progressive Alliance government between March 2012 and September 2012. He had been the Union minister of state for shipping between 2009 and 2011.

Roy joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2017. However, soon after the Trinamool Congress retained power in West Bengal in May 2021, he aligned himself with the state’s ruling party.

This came months after he won the Krishnanagar Uttar Assembly constituency on a BJP ticket.

The BJP had been demanding Roy’s disqualification as a legislator after he was made the chairperson of the public accounts committee in July 2021.

In November, the Calcutta High Court disqualified Roy as an MLA. The High Court set aside an earlier order by Speaker Biman Banerjee, where he had refused to act on a disqualification petition filed by the BJP.

On January 16, the Supreme Court stayed the High Court’s verdict.

Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee said on Monday that the death of Roy marked the end of an era in West Bengal’s political history. “His contributions helped shape an important phase of the state’s public and political journey,” Abhishek Banerjee said on social media.

“As a founding pillar of the All India Trinamool Congress, he was instrumental in expanding and consolidating the organisation during its formative years,” Abhishek Banerjee said. “His dedication to public life will be recalled with admiration.”