Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and Krishnanagar Uttar MLA Mukul Roy on Friday said the BJP, his former party, would win if a by-election was held in his constituency. Roy also said the TMC would do well in the 2023 Assembly polls in Tripura.

At a press conference in Krishnanagar in Nadia district on August 6, Roy had said the BJP would win a bypoll in Krishnanagar Uttar. Realising his faux pas, he quickly corrected himself saying that he meant the TMC.

Roy’s switch to the ruling party after the BJP’s loss in the Assembly polls has infuriated his former colleagues in the saffron party who have been demanding his disqualification from the Assembly under the anti-defection law. The BJP pressed the demand even more after the TMC backed his candidature for the chairperson of the Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a post that is held by a member of the Opposition party as per convention.

On Friday, Roy, who is still officially a BJP MLA, said he attended the PAC meeting as a “BJP member”. “BJP will win if a by-election is held in Krishnanagar North. It will be decided by people. Everything will be decided by people of that constituency.”

Asked which party’s legislator he was, Roy categorically replied, “I am a BJP MLA.”

Asked about the comments, TMC Deputy Chief Whip in the Assembly, Tapas Roy, said, “It will be in the fitness of things to ask Mukul what he meant. Since I was not present at the interaction I won’t comment.”

Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP said, “If he makes such statements, it is for people to judge.”

(With inputs from agencies)