Kolkata, February 23: Former Railway Minister and senior politician Mukul Roy passed away early Monday morning at a private hospital in Kolkata. His family has confirmed the news. He was 73 years old.
Roy’s death occurred shortly after 1:30 AM. His son, Subhranshu Roy, confirmed the news. According to close associates, he had been undergoing treatment for several health issues for a long time, but the treatment had not been effective.
Once a key leader in the Trinamool Congress, Roy served as the party’s general secretary and was a close confidant of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. He was among the first nine leaders to approach the Election Commission of India to establish the Trinamool Congress after Banerjee split from Congress in the late 1990s. Many state Congress leaders in West Bengal supported him.
Later, he held several ministerial positions under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by Dr. Manmohan Singh, including Railway Minister, Minister of State for Shipping and Waterways, and Minister of State for Urban Development, beginning in 2009 when the Trinamool Congress became an alliance partner.
However, over time, he began to distance himself from the leadership of the Trinamool Congress, particularly from Mamata Banerjee. He was first removed from the position of general secretary, and gradually his participation in party events diminished.
Ultimately, in 2017, he decided to sever ties with the Trinamool Congress and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He also resigned from his Rajya Sabha membership in the Trinamool Congress and remained with the BJP until 2021.
In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, he successfully contested as the BJP candidate from the Krishnanagar (North) constituency in Nadia district.
However, just days after the election results were announced, he rejoined the Trinamool Congress, which led Mamata Banerjee to secure a third consecutive term with a significant majority.
Despite this, he did not resign as a member of the state assembly and officially remained a BJP MLA. The assembly speaker, Biman Bandopadhyay, rejected the BJP’s petition to cancel Roy’s assembly membership. He stated that since Roy was officially a BJP candidate, his membership could not be revoked.
Roy was also appointed as the chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a position traditionally held by a member of the main opposition party in the assembly.
Subsequently, the BJP approached the Calcutta High Court, seeking to annul Roy’s membership from the Krishnanagar (North) constituency. After a lengthy hearing, on November 12, 2025, a bench of Justices Debangsu Basak and Mohammad Shabbar Rashidi of the Calcutta High Court annulled Roy’s membership.
Subhranshu Roy challenged the Calcutta High Court’s decision in the Supreme Court. On January 16, a bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Joymalya Bagchi stayed the Calcutta High Court’s ruling.
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AK/AS
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