Kolkata: Senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mukul Roy was admitted to Apollo hospital in Kolkata after he complained of uneasiness. Roy, aged 68 years, who rejoined TMC from BJP in June 2021, has been suffering from neurological ailments. As his health condition started deteriorating on Sunday, he was rushed to a private hospital.
Currently, he is undergoing treatment in the hospital's medical department. Doctors said his condition was stable now and he was kept under observation. Roy, who was always considered to be TMC's number 2 leader, served as the railway minister previously in the then Congress-led UPA government by replacing Dinesh Trivedi.
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In November 2017, Roy joined BJP and was appointed as the convener of the West Bengal BJP's panchayat committee. He played a key role in the rural polls in 2018 with BJP winning 5,779-gram panchayat seats and became the second-largest party in the state after TMC, which had bagged 38,000 seats. He also won the Krishnanagar MLA seat in 2021 on a BJP ticket.
Soon after this, he returned to the TMC and has been keeping a low profile since then. Now, with the panchayat polls around the corner, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has met Roy a couple of times inquiring about his health though political analysts feel it to be an effort to ensure that Roy tightens his grip at the grassroots level.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, who had also joined the BJP from the TMC, filed a complaint against Roy's defection. The Speaker, however, dismissed the complaint.
