Blow to TMC as senior, much-liked leader Tapas Roy quits party, felt ‘abandoned’ after ED raid

Early on Monday,veteran leader Tapas Roy (67) announced he was leaving the Trinamool Congress (TMC). The MLA from Baranagar since 2011, Roy declared himself a “free bird”. Although it’s unclear whether Roy will join the BJP, TMC sources claimed it is a matter of time.

Before submitting his Assembly resignation to Speaker Biman Banerjee, the five-time MLA told the media that he had resigned from all party and administrative posts on March 1 itself. “I had already intimated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and party president Subrata Bakshi,” said Roy.

On his future plans, he said, “Politics will advance in a political way… Right now, I don’t know which party I’ll join. When I decide, I’ll let you know.”

Tapas Roy’s political sojourn began in Kolkata’s Surendranath College with the student organisation of the Congress in West Bengal, the Chhatra Parishad (CP). During a long stint as CP president in the 1990s, he worked closely with Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, Pranab Mukherjee, Subrata Banerjee, Mamata Banerjee, Somen Mitra and other Congress stalwarts of West Bengal.

He entered the state Assembly in 1996 by winning a by-election from the erstwhile Vidyasagar segment in Central Kolkata on a Congress ticket.

Congress spokesperson Soumya Aich Roy recalled, “I have worked with Tapas Roy. He was a guardian of small-time party workers, and never fled from any agitation. He used to stay on till the end, leaving only after all arrested workers had got bail. We could freely confide our criticisms of the party or any leader with him. Tapas da used to hear us out.”

He added, “Tapas da was a misfit in the TMC. He never got the respect he deserves from the TMC leadership.”

Having joined the TMC in 2000, Roy was elected to the Assembly for the first