‘Will Stay With the BJP’: Mukul Roy on Reports of Rejoining TMC

File photo of Mamata Banerjee and Mukul Roy. 

(Photo: PTI)

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from West Bengal, Mukul Roy, held a press conference on Sunday, 26 July, and said that he will stay with the BJP, and the news about him trying to rejoin his former party Trinamool Congress (TMC) is misleading.

“These are misleading comments spread by other parties. I am tired of getting calls. I am in BJP, and will stay so,” Roy said.

The statement comes amid speculations that Roy has been looking to rejoin TMC, the party which he quit in 2017 following a growing rift with Mamata Banerjee and the party that started in 2015.

Sources close to the matter had earlier told The Quint that the while Roy was looking to get back, the party high command was not very keen on taking him back given his present, troubled equation with the BJP.

During the press conference, Roy added that he has received a lot of respect from senior BJP leaders like Kailash Vijayvargiya, Home Minister Amit Shah and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

After joining the BJP in 2017, Roy has helped the BJP gain ground in the 2018 state panchayat polls, as well as the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

He also engineered many defections from the TMC into the BJP. However, in the recent months, the defections seem to have stopped.