KOLKATA: BJP leader Mukul Roy, who skipped meetings with the national leadership after rubbishing party’s claim that it would pick up at least 190 of the total 294 assembly seats in Bengal, has been asked by the party high command to visit Delhi again on Friday. According to sources in the party, Union Home Minister Amit Shah may meet Roy who had returned to Kolkata after rejecting the projections about the 2021 elections.
Roy, however, said he was not sure about his visit to the national capital as he would undergo treatment for his eyes from Monday. ‘’The doctor will examine my eyes on Monday. My schedule will depend on what the doctor will prescribe me,’’ said Roy.
Roy, BJP’s state chief Dilip Ghosh and other functionaries of the Bengal unit had left for Delhi on July 22 to attend a series of meetings with the national leadership to ascertain the strategy for the crucial assembly elections.
During a meeting with national general secretary Kailash Vjayvargiya on Thursday, Ghosh had tabled projections claiming BJP would pick up as many as 190 seats out of 294 seats in next year’s election.
According to sources, Roy rubbished the projections saying they were not grounded in reality. However, the other Bengal functionaries present in the meetings did not accept Roy’s observation. It was learnt that an unhappy Roy returned to Kolkata without attending the subsequent meetings.
Roy, however, said that he had to return to Kolkata due to medical reasons. His sudden return to Kolkata became the talk of the state’s political circles as he was once portrayed as the main architect behind BJP’s meteoric rise in 2019 Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal.
According to sources in the state BJP, Roy has expressed his disgruntlement over Ghosh’s dominance in the day-to-day affairs of the party on several occasions and he had gone to Delhi last month to vent out his feelings to the high command. Roy has dismissed these stories about his dissatisfaction calling them mere speculation and rumours. He said, “All these are stories cooked by a section of media. I am very much with the BJP and I will be with the party.’’