Mukul Roy says he will quit party, TMC announces his suspension

The Trinamool Congress on Monday suspended senior party leader Mukul Roy after he announced his decision to quit the party.

According to the TMC, Roy, one of the founder members of the party, was suspended over ties with some rival party in West Bengal.

The Trinamool Congress said that it would not "tolerate" its partymen keeping ties with opposition parties.

This came just hours after Roy announced that he would tender his resignation as the Rajya Sabha MP after Durga Puja. He said he would "reveal the reason" behind his move after Durga Puja.

Asked whether he would join the BJP in days to come, Roy said, "Whatever I have to say. I will say it after Durga Puja. But I would like to mention that people of Bengal don't like political controversies during Durga Puja,".

Once the second-in-command in the TMC after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Roy was absent from an event to unveil the Durga Puja edition of the TMC mouthpiece, Jago Bangla, on September 19.

Banerjee and the entire TMC top brass, barring Roy, were present at the event.

Roy was recently removed as the TMC vice president after the party decided to restructure its committee.

Last week, Trinamool leaders had reprimanded Roy for allegedly hobnobbing with BJP leaders.

He was earlier removed as the party's in-charge of Tripura, where the TMC was steadily making inroads till its members switched over to the BJP earlier this year. 

With PTI and ANI inputs