Amid reports of him switching over to the BJP, rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mukul Roy on Wednesday resigned from his Rajya Sabha seat “with a heavy heart”.

Roy, who has already been expelled by TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for “anti-party activities”, met Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chiarman M Venkaiah Naidu to submit his resignation from the Upper House.

Making a veiled attack on the West Bengal CM’s reported authoritarian style of functioning, Roy told reporters here: “All should be comrades in a party and not servants. But one-man parties do not work like that.”

Roy, who was once the second-in-command in the TMC after Banerjee, hinted at his future association with the BJP. He said that in 1998 when the TMC had seat-sharing arrangement with the saffron party in West Bengal, its leadership had said that BJP is “not communal”.

Narda case

Roy has been questioned by the CBI in the Narda case, a sting operation in which TMC leaders were allegedly caught accepting cash in return for favours. The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate are investigating the case in which several TMC leaders have been questioned.

In this backdrop, Roy’s expected switch-over to the BJP is being viewed by some in the ruling party in West Bengal as an ominous sign. As a founder-member of the TMC, Roy is privy to information which may help the BJP politically. The TMC has officially rubbished such speculations with party leader Partha Chatterjee describing Roy as a “political nobody” who has no base in West Bengal.

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