3 min readKolkataUpdated: Feb 23, 2026 06:43 AM IST
Former Railway Minister and once Trinamool Congress number 2 Mukul Roy passed away on Monday.
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Roy, 71, was admitted at a private hospital in Kolkata, breathed his last around 1.30 am.
Speaking with The Express, his son Subhrangshu Roy said, “He was suffering from multiple ailments.”
Roy , a founding member of Trinamool Congress — that came into existence on January 1998 — was once a close aid of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Like her, Roy too started his career with Youth Congress in Bengal.
After founding TMC, he worked alongside Banerjee in the party and was made the party’s general secretary.
He later emerged as the party’s face in Delhi. He was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2006 and served as the leader of the party in Rajya Sabha from 2009 to 2012.
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In the UPA II government, he served initially as Minister of State, Shipping, before taking over as Railways Minister in March 2012, replacing party colleague Dinesh Trivedi.
Once known as ‘Chanakya of Bengal politics’, Roy was once considered number two in Trinamool Congress and an operator for the party both in Bengal and Delhi.
Post 2011, when TMC ended 34 years of Left rule and Mamata Banerjee became the chief minister of Bengal, Roy contributed in strengthening the party.
Roy, then the party’s general secretary till 2015, oversaw an unprecedented wave of defections from the CPI(M) and Congress.
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Roy distanced himself from the Trinamool Congress and formally joined the BJP in November 2017. Roy worked on the ground helping the BJP build base in the state, and is credited with the party winning 18 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
He helped BJP woo a number of Trinamool Congress stalwarts in its fold and got elected as a BJP MLA from Krishnanagar Uttar in 2021 assembly polls.
But soon, he developed a distance with the BjP, and finally in June 2021, returned to the Trinamool Congress.
However, back in TMC, he was never his earlier self, both in stature and acumen.
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Roy is reportedly suffered from dementia and various other ailments.
The Calcutta High Court on November 13, 2025, disqualified the veteran leader as an MLA under the anti-defection law for switching over to the ruling TMC, after having been elected on a BJP ticket in the 2021 elections.
