File photo of TMC leader Mukul Roy.
Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of Bengal, today stripped her once-powerful aide Mukul Roy of all posts in the Trinamool Congress.
The Rajya Sabha MP has been dropped as party general secretary and from the working committee. The decision was taken at a meeting in Kolkata that Mr Roy had refused to attend, saying he had to be in Parliament on budget day.
"It is an ad hoc working committee, it is their prerogative," Mr Roy said today about his removal from posts.
Mukul Roy was yesterday removed from his prestigious parliamentary position as leader of the Trinamool in the Rajya Sabha.
In recent weeks, the Chief Minister has demonstrated that she no longer favours the man she once trusted implicitly. Mr Roy's position as party general secretary was diluted and a powerful "national secretariat" was set up to handle parliamentary matters.
On Thursday, Mr Roy met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, rattling a party that has been worried about losing people to the BJP.
Mukul Roy's ties with the Trinamool chief nose-dived after he was questioned in connection with the Saradha Ponzi scam in which several party leaders are being investigated.
After his questioning, Mr Roy said he would cooperate fully with the CBI, contradicting Ms Banerjee's stand that the agency is being used by the centre's ruling BJP for political vendetta.
Mr Roy went against the party line once again by praising the BJP-led government's railway budget.
Mamata Banerjee is seen to be struggling to keep her party together amid signs that some leaders are warming up to the BJP ahead of next year's assembly elections in the state.
She recently elevated party MP and former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi as national vice president days after he shared a stage in Gujarat with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's brother and praised the PM.