Outgoing Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy keen to join active politics

Shillong/Agartala, Aug. 19 (IANS): Outgoing Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy, who hails from West Bengal, is keen to join active politics soon.

Roy, state President of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s West Bengal unit from 2002 to 2006 and a staunch Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) supporter, told IANS, “I am going to Delhi on Wednesday to talk with the central leadership. I am keen to join active politics soon. After returning to Kolkata, I will talk to the BJP’s state leadership and would then decide my political position.”

He added, “After returning to Shillong from Delhi, I have to complete the official formalities as Governor of Meghalaya then I would return to my home state Bengal. It is not yet decided whether I would contest the assembly elections in Bengal next year or I would take any other important organisational post in the poll-bound state.”

The 74-year-old engineer turned politician, however, evaded the question when asked whether he would like to be the face of the BJP in the West Bengal assembly elections next year.

Some media reports quoted Roy as saying “If my party decides that I am a fit candidate for the post of chief minister, obviously, I shall consider it. It is for the party leadership to decide.”

Roy joined the BJP in 1990. He replaced Ashim Ghosh as President of the West Bengal unit of the BJP in 2002 and was succeeded by Sukumar Banerjee in 2006. Roy, known for stoking controversy on social media, unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 from the North Kolkata parliamentary constituency and in 2014 from the South Kolkata constituency. Roy, who was appointed Governor of Tripura in May, 2015 and transferred to Meghalaya in August, 2018, said that no detailed discussion was held with the BJP’s central and state leadership about his future political position yet.

Goa Governor Satya Pal Malik was transferred to Meghalaya on Tuesday and he will replace Tathagata Roy, who completed his five-year tenure on the gubernatorial post in May.

Roy seems poised for re-entry into Bengal politics ahead of the crucial Bengal assembly polls and is awaiting a nod from the BJP. The party is eyeing the upcoming polls in the eastern state after it won 18 of the 42 seats in last year’s Lok Sabha elections. Roy who was a professor at Jadavpur University in Kolkata and founder head of the department of construction engineering, also played a key role in the construction of the metro rail in Kolkata as its chief engineer.