Kolkata : Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy, who is officially still a BJP legislator from West Bengal, informed the office of Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee that he is still associated with the BJP and has not joined the Trinamool Congress.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, Roy got elected as a legislator from Krishnagar (North) in Nadia district on a BJP ticket.
However, on June 11, 2021, he went to the Trinamool Congress headquarters and rejoined the ruling party in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the party’s national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee. The event was widely covered and aired by the media.
Soon after that, the Speaker elected him as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the state Assembly, a chair which by tradition is always offered to an opposition legislator.
The BJP objected to this and demanded that Roy should be disqualified as an MLA. A hearing on this was scheduled in the office of the Speaker on Thursday, wherein Roy’s counsel claimed that his client visited the Trinamool office on June 11, 2021 out of courtesy, and he continues to be with the BJP.
Earlier on January 19, the Speaker had dismissed Roy’s disqualification as a member of West Bengal Assembly. The BJP had approached the Calcutta High Court against this decision of the Speaker which earlier this month set aside the Speaker’s decision to dismiss Roy’s disqualification.
At the end of the day, the Speaker said that there will be no more hearing in this matter. Another order from the Speaker is expected in the second week of May.
–IANS