Mukul Roy likely to float new party, eyes minority vote bank

Party may be named Progressive Trinamool Congress

Once the second-in-command of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, Mukul Roy, may finally float a new political party soon, as work is already in progress to apply to Election Commisson (EC) for the same.

It is former TMC MLA, Dipak Ghosh who is in charge doing the necessary paperwork to float this new outfit, which may be named Progressive Trinamool Congress. Ghosh — who was seen last evening in an well-attended Iftaar Party with Mukul Roy at the centre of attraction —  said, "We are floating a new party.The draft is ready and we will file the documents for floating the new party with the Election Commission after Eid. Once the formalities are completed, we will make the announcement."

“Apart from many TMC leaders, we are expecting leaders from other parties, too. A meeting will be held soon to finalise the positions of people who would be joining the party,” he added.

Ghosh, however, did not clarify whether he was speaking on behalf of Roy, who still continues to be a Rajya Sabha MP of TMC. When asked yesterday, Roy said, “This is not the right time or the place. It is a spiritual event and I don’t want to say anything political from here. Let the time come, I will announce what I have to.”

If the attendees of the Iftaar party were any indication about, who were with Roy, there were some surprises as well apart from known Mukul Roy loyalists. Apart from Dipak Ghosh, TMC MLAs Siuli Saha and Shilbhadra Dutta -- all considered close to Roy, BJP Pradeep Ghosh and Congress leader Samrat Topadar also attended the event. Noor Alam, one of the imams of Nakhoda Masjid led the namaz prayer in the Iftaar.

However, it is clear that Mukul Roy, who according to many worked as a bridge between Mamata and minority leaders all these years, is eying the minority votebank.

Apart from several rounds of meetings with  Pirzada Toha Siddiqui of Furfura Sharif who is a prominent and influential spiritual leader among the Muslim community in Bengal, Roy in the last couple of months has been meeting the minority leaders like  Mohammad Quamruzzaman, general secretary of the All Bengal Minority Youth Federation, former Left Front minister Abdul Rezzak Mollah and a senior minority leader Siddikullah Choudhury.