Kolkata: Former railway minister and Trinamool Congress stalwart Mukul Roy passed away at a hospital in Kolkata on Monday. He was 71.
“He was suffering from multiple ailments,” his son Subhrangshu Roy told The Indian Express.
Known for his organisational skills, Roy has been with the Trinamool Congress from the start. At one point of time, he was considered the party’s second in command after Mamata Banerjee and was elected general secretary.
He was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2006 and served as the leader of the party in the Upper House from 2009 to 2012.
He initially served as minister of state for shipping under the UPA II government, before taking over as minister of railways in March 2012. He replaced his party colleague Dinesh Trivedi.
After the Trinamool came to power in West Bengal in 2011, Roy worked towards strengthening the party. Several CPI(M) and Congress workers moved to the Trinamool under his charge.
His name got linked to both the Saradha chit find scam and Narada sting operation, and was questioned by the CBI.
His distance from the Trinamool grew till he formally joined the BJP in November 2017. He is credited with having helped the BJP build a base in West Bengal, and allowing it to win 18 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
When in the BJP, he got a number of Trinamool Congress stalwarts to join the party and got elected as a BJP MLA from Krishnanagar Uttar in 2021 assembly polls.
However, his relationship with the BJP was short lived. Roy returned to the Trinamool in June 2021. However, he was no longer his old self. Some claimed that he suffered from dementia and various other ailments.
On November 13, 2025, disqualified the veteran leader as an MLA under the anti-defection law for switching over to the ruling Trinamool, after having been elected on a BJP ticket in the 2021 elections.
