Mukul Roy meets West Bengal BJP chief Kailash Vijayvargiya, sparks speculation of joining saffron party

New Delhi: Suspended TMC leader Mukul Roy on Monday met the BJP’s incharge of West Bengal Kailash Vijayvargiya, further fuelling speculation that he may join hands with the BJP. Asked if Roy, a founding member of the Mamata Banerjee-led party, will join the BJP, Vijayvargiya said that his party is not in a hurry over the matter. [caption id=“attachment_4079003” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Mukul Roy. PTI[/caption] At the same time, he asserted that all those who want development in West Bengal will come on board. “All those political leaders who want West Bengal to grow would like to join BJP and work under Prime Minister Narendra Modi as there is no other party which wants to work on the agenda of development,” the BJP general secretary said. There is also a possibility that Roy may float his own party and forge an alliance with the BJP. Union minister Babul Supriyo, one of the two BJP Lok Sabha MPs from the state, met Vijayvargiya after the latter’s meeting with Roy. Once the second-in-command in the TMC after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Roy was suspended for six years for “anti-party activities” following his announcement on 25 September that he would resign from the party after Durga Puja. Roy had earlier said he does not consider the BJP to be a communal force and that it is a “secular party”. A two-time Rajya Sabha MP, he has played a key role in building the TMC’s organisational structure.