Former Union Minister and TMC founding leader Mukul Roy passes away at 71 after prolonged illness

Former Union minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) founding leader Mukul Roy died in the early hours of Monday, February 23, at a Kolkata hospital after a prolonged illness. He was 71 at the time of his death.

Roy had been battling multiple ailments, including Parkinson’s disease, and had undergone three surgeries, his son Subhranshu Roy said. He had been admitted to hospital for over two years and was in a coma during the final phase of his treatment.

A key architect of the rise of All India Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, Roy was among the party’s founding members and one of its most trusted strategists during its formative years. Before the creation of the TMC, he had been associated with the Congress.

At the national level, Roy served as Minister of State in the Shipping Ministry and later in the Ministry of Railways during the second UPA government led by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. His tenure in Delhi marked his transition from a regional organiser to a national political figure.

His political journey, however, was marked by dramatic shifts. In 2017, Roy left the TMC and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, emerging as one of the saffron party’s prominent faces in Bengal. He was elected as a BJP MLA in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections. But in August that year, in a move that stunned the state’s political establishment, Roy returned to the TMC in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

His return triggered a legal and political storm. Roy faced disqualification proceedings from the State Legislative Assembly over defection charges. The matter reached the courts, with the Supreme Court of India in January staying an earlier order of the Calcutta High Court that had disqualified him from the Assembly.

During hearings in the apex court, advocate Prateeka Dwivedi, appearing for petitioner Shubhranshu Roy, argued that the Speaker had rejected the disqualification petitions because the social media posts relied upon to prove defection were not authenticated under Section 65B of the Evidence Act.

As news of his death broke, leaders across party lines expressed condolences. BJP leader Dilip Ghosh described Roy as an experienced politician who had earned respect during his stint with the party between 2019 and 2021.

“He was an experienced politician. He became a Union Minister too. When he came to the BJP, he was given a lot of respect. For the last 2-3 years, he has been ill and could not actively participate in politics. I pray that his soul rests in peace,” Ghosh told ANI.

Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari also condoled his passing, saying he was “deeply disheartened” by the demise of the senior politician and extended condolences to his family.

Over a career spanning decades, Mukul Roy occupied multiple political spaces — from Congress to TMC, from the BJP back to TMC — navigating Bengal’s turbulent political landscape with strategic agility. In his final years, illness kept him away from public life, even as his legal battles and political realignments remained a subject of intense debate.