West Bengal Assembly election 2021, Mukul Roy profile: BJP’s Krishnanagar Uttar candidate to enter poll fray after two decades

BJP leader Mukul Roy has been fielded from the Krishnanagar Uttar Assembly constituency in the upcoming West Bengal polls. He will face competition from actor and TMC candidate Koushani Mukherjee, when the constituency goes to polls in the sixth of eight phases on 22 April. The constituency is dominated by the Matua community. Roy is returning to the electoral fray after a gap of two decades. The last time he had contested an election was in 2001, from the Jagatdal Assembly constituency. He lost to the Forward Bloc’s Haripada Biswas by a margin of 13,402 votes. Since then, he served as the TMC’s general secretary, looking after the organisational affairs. Roy started his political career as a Youth Congress leader and went on to become one of the founding members of the All India Trinamool Congress, when Mamata Banerjee floated it in January 1998 after splitting from the Congress. Roy emerged as the party’s face in Delhi, and was made its general secretary in 2006, following which he earned a Rajya Sabha berth. He served initially as Minister of State, Shipping, before becoming Railways Minister — a portfolio Mamata held till she moved to West Bengal as the chief minister – during the UPA II government’s tenure. Roy served as the minister till September 2012, when TMC exited the UPA coalition. A rift came between Roy and Banerjee after his name came up in the Saradha scam and Narada sting operation cases. He was suspended from the Trinamool for six years in September 2017. He formally joined the BJP in November. After joining the BJP, Roy was made head of the party’s election management committee in West Bengal. He led the party to victory in the 2018 panchayat poll and 2019 Lok Sabha election, and played a crucial role during the 2019 general elections. In September last year, he was promoted to the post of National Vice President by party chief JP Nadda. Among the promises he made but didn’t fulfil was having 107 TMC MLAs who are ready to join the BJP in 2019 and vowing to win all three by-elections held in West Bengal that year – all of which saw the saffron party’s defeat. West Bengal Police’s Criminal Investigation Department filed a supplementary charge sheet in December last year in the murder of TMC MLA Satyajit Biswas where it has named Roy as a “primary conspirator” in the case. He did his BSc from Calcutta University and later earned an MA degree in public administration from the Madurai Kamaraj University in 2006. The Krishnanagar Uttar Assembly constituency lies in the Nadia district. It is a part of the Krishnanagar Lok Sabha constituency. Elections for the West Bengal Assembly will be held in eight phases, up from seven last time, beginning with polling for 30 seats on 27 March. The second phase of West Bengal’s assembly elections has been scheduled for 1 April and will cover 30 constituencies, followed by the third phase on 6 April for 31 seats, the fourth on 10 April for 44 constituencies, the fifth on 17 April for 45 seats, sixth for 43 seats on 22 April, seventh phase on 26 April for 36 seats and last and eighth phase on 29 April for 35 seats. The results of the election will be declared on 2 May.