PM Modi phones Mukul Roy a day after TMC leader visits latter

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday phoned Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mukul Roy to inquire about the latter’s wife undergoing treatment for Covid-19 at a hospital in Kolkata amid speculation about the return of former Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders to the ruling party in West Bengal.

Roy did not comment on the conversation. But BJP leaders aware of the matter said Modi’s calls lasted around two to three minutes. The two spoke a day after TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee visited the hospital on Wednesday to meet Roy, and triggered speculation about the latter’s next political move.

Abhishek Banerjee spent about 10 minutes at the hospital and inquired about Krishna Roy’s health. TMC leaders aware of the matter said Abhishek Banerjee, who is chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, also met Mukul Roy’s son, Subhranshu, to inquire about his mother’s health.

On Thursday afternoon, Abhishek Banerjee commented on his visit to the hospital. “We may have political differences (with Roy) but some things are above politics. I know his wife since I was a child. To me, she is like my own mother,” said Banerjee while on a visit to villages in East Midnapore district that were ravaged by Cyclone Yaas.

Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh visited the hospital around two hours later and met Subhranshu Roy, who on May 29 wrote on social media that self-criticism is more necessary than criticising a government elected by people. He did not name any party or state, but many took it as an obvious reference to BJP in Bengal.

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Mukul Roy won the Krishnanagar North seat in the March-April assembly polls, but Subharanshu Roy lost.

One of TMC’s founder members, who was a close aide to Mamata Banerjee, Mukul Roy defected to the BJP in 2017. His son switched sides two years later.

Mamata Banerjee added to speculation about her stand on Mukul Roy when she drew a comparison between him and Suvendu Adhikari, who defected to the BJP from TMC ahead of the polls and defeated the chief minister from Nandigram. “Poor Mukul has been fielded from Nadia district although he hails from North 24 Parganas. He is not as bad as Suvendu,” Banerjee said at a rally.

Mukul Roy was the BJP’s election strategist in the 2019 Bengal Lok Sabha polls in which the party emerged as the second largest in West Bengal with 18 out of 42 seats. The TMC swept back to power by winning 213 of the 292 seats for which polling was held. The BJP managed to win just 77 seats and many leaders, who defected from TMC, have since been trying to return to the ruling party.

TMC leader and minister Chandrima Bhattacharya took a swipe at Modi’s call to Mukul Roy. “It feels good to see BJP leaders following us. Our youth leader Abhishek Banerjee showed them that there is a space for courtesy in politics.”

The West Bengal elections were among the most keenly contested polls lately in which Modi and Union home minister led the BJP from the front.

Giving his first reaction to the local media on Thursday afternoon, Subhranshu Roy said Banerjee had also inquired about his mother.

“I am grateful to the chief minister because despite her busy schedule she regularly asked her aides to inquire about my parents. Abhishek Banerjee’s visit had nothing to do with politics, but the example he set should be followed by all parties. PM Modi called my father a BJP leader but Abhishek’s visit has a different significance. In the past, Union home minister Amit Shah and other BJP leaders had called up my father. I will not get into a debate on who called first and who called later,” said Subhranshu Roy.

Asked whether he would return to the TMC, he said, “Those decisions will be taken later. My mother’s recovery is my only priority right now.”

He said he believes what he wrote about self-criticism in his social media page.

“When a boy comes first in class in an examination, the student who comes last should find the reason for the topper’s success,” he said.