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TMC veteran Tapas Roy joins BJP, swears to fight corruption in Bengal
Tapas Roy, whose name never surfaced in any corruption case, is a three-time winner from North 24 Parganas district’s Baranagar assembly seat
Kolkata: Trinamool Congress leader and former minister Tapas Roy, who resigned from the West Bengal legislative assembly on Monday, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday evening amid speculation that he may be fielded from the Kolkata North Lok Sabha seat against incumbent Sudip Bandopadhyay.
“Today I become a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s family. I will serve the BJP in whatever capacity it deems fit. Together we will end the rule of the corrupt and restore peace in Bengal,” Roy said after accepting the BJP flag from the party’s state president Sukanta Majumdar and other senior leaders.
“TMC gave him important posts. He also served as minister. And now he has stabbed the party in the back like a traitor,” TMC spokesperson Santanu Sen said.
Roy was the TMC’s deputy chief whip in the current assembly.
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Biman Banerjee, the speaker, said he could not accept Roy’s resignation because his letter had a technical error in a sentence.
“I have asked Roy to submitted a fresh letter on Thursday,” Banerjee said.
Roy, whose name never surfaced in any corruption case, is a three-time winner from North 24 Parganas district’s Baranagar, which is a part of the Dum Dum Lok Sabha seat held by TMC’s Saugata Roy since 2009.
Mamata Banerjee, 69, who founded TMC in 1998, and Roy, 67, were earlier in the Congress where both served as state president of the youth wing. Roy became a Congress MLA for the first time in Kolkata in 1996 and won his second assembly seat for TMC in 2001.
Roy’s decision to join the BJP comes a day after former Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay resigned from the judiciary, announcing that he would be joining the BJP, tentatively on March 7.
“I am joining the BJP because it is the only national party. Prime Minister Modi is a good man. He is very hard working. He is trying to do something for the country,” the former judge said at a press conference in the high court premises on Tuesday.
