Mukul Roy keeps new party speculations alive

Kolkata, October 29: Sidelined Trimool Congress leader Mukul Roy on Thursday remained noncommittal on the possibility of floating a new political outfit but did not rule it either. “I am neither ruling out the possibility nor am I confirming it,” Roy, who is on a visit to north Bengal, told media persons. “Till now I am a Trimool Congress MP. My first priority is to be on the side of people,” said Roy, about whom speculation is rife that he is in the process of floating a new political party. He also said he was open to talk to Gorkha Jamukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung, who has been at a loggerheads with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trimool government in the state over the issue of a separate state of Gorkhaland. Earlier in September, Roy had distanced himself from an advertisement of a new political outfit the tiolist Trimool Congress in which two of his close aides - Amitabh Majumdar and Farid Khan - were med office bearers. In June, expelled Trimool leader Dipak Ghosh - a close aide of Roy - had claimed that process for forming a new political party has been initiated. Roy then too had distanced himself from the comments saying they were Ghosh’s “persol remarks”. The Trimool Rajya Sabha member was stripped off party posts after the Central Bureau of Investigation quizzed him in the multi-crore rupee Saradha scam. (IANS)