Once a BJP Minister, 'Kingslayer' Saryu Roy Takes Unassailable Lead Over CM Raghubar Das

New Delhi: Saryu Roy was once a constant in all of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) plans in Jharkhand. However, as counting for Assembly elections approached a conclusion on Monday, Roy, now a BJP rebel and an independent candidate, emerged as the king slayer.

Roy was pitted against Chief Minister Raghubar Das for the East Jamshedpur seat, where the chief minister had been winning since the last five elections.

Roy had resigned from the Raghubar Das cabinet on November 17, and had met Jharkhand Governor Droupadi Murmu to hand over his resignation letter. The same night Roy also resigned from the membership of Jharkhand Assembly, sending the letter to Speaker Dinesh Oraon.

Soon after the formation of the BJP government in 2014, the chief minister had allocated Roy the portfolio of Parliamentary Affairs, Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs. Later, he had asked the chief minister to divest the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio.

Roy was expelled for six years by the BJP on disciplinary ground after he contested from Jamshedpur (East) as an independent candidate against the chief minister on December 7 as he was denied ticket from the same seat.

Despite being a minister in all BJP governments in Jharkhand, Roy has been vocal in raising issues within the government as well.

A section in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha was in favour of supporting Rai's candidature against CM Raghubar Das, thus pitching JMM for the urban seats as well.

Roy was earlier quoted saying that he did not want to be the cause for sending a third chief minister to jail. Saryu Roy, one of the petitioners demanding a CBI inquiry into the fodder scam in Bihar in the nineties, was referring to Lalu Yadav and another former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda. His third possible victim, he indicated, could be the present Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das.

Decision to deny Roy the party ticket was not entirely unexpected. He had not only criticised Das publicly, he also has not been attending cabinet meetings for the past eleven months. He had also filed cases in court against government decisions and was vocal about corruption in the state, which has been ‘ruled’ by the BJP for 14 years since it was formed by bifurcating Bihar 19 years ago.

Roy has RSS links and is known to be close to former RSS Pracharak Govindacharya.