File photo of TMC leader Mukul Roy.
Mukul Roy is still the Trinamool Congress' all-India general secretary. But now, party chief Mamata Banerjee has stripped her one-time right hand man of his prestigious parliamentary position, the leader of the party in Rajya Sabha. Ms Banerjee, according to sources, has written to the Rajya Sabha chairman, Dr Hamid Ansari, that Derek O'Brien will replace Mr Roy as Trinamool leader in the Upper House.
The Trinamool will announce this decision formally after a meeting of its working committee in Kolkata tomorrow. Mr Roy was asked to come to the meeting but he has said he will be absent. "I want to be in Parliament on Budget day and I have some personal work," he said.
With his removal from the parliamentary post, Mr Roy's wings are no longer just clipped, they are chopped, the Opposition is saying.
Mukul Roy's reaction to his replacement has been limited to "I have heard from the media but heard nothing from the party."
Earlier this month, his organizational primacy had been diluted with the appointment of an additional general secretary and the setting up of a special group of the National Secretariat comprising Mr O'Brien and the Lok Sabha MPs Kalyan Banerjee and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.
Mukul Roy and Mamata Banerjee have fallen out publicly for at least one month now. Mr Roy met BJP's Arun Jaitley at his Parliament office yesterday. He also praised the fact that there has been no fare hike in the rail budget; Ms Banerjee said fares should have been cut.
On January 31, after he was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Saradha case, Mr Roy had said he would cooperate with the CBI, contradicting Ms Banerjee's stand that the BJP was using the CBI for political vendetta against the Trinamool.
Among the many reasons for the rift between Ms Banerjee and her former right hand man is the growing clout of the Chief Minister's nephew and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee who was made president of the Trinamool Youth Congress some months ago.
Today, Mr Roy is reported to have said he regretted that decision. "Subhendu Adhikari, who was the Trinamool Youth Congress leader, should not have been replaced. He should have been promoted in the party for his organizational capabilities," he is reported to have said in Delhi.
Ms Banerjee is seen to be struggling to keep dissent in her party under control 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.