TMC Nominates Three-Time MP Prof Saugata Roy From Dum Dum (image-facebook/Professor Saugata Roy Official)Brother of former governor of Tripura and Meghalaya and former BJP member, Tathagata Roy, Prof Saugata Roy has been nominated by Trinamool Congress from West Bengal’s Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
During an interview with The Statesman during the state’s panchayat polls, the sitting MP said that TMC was not trying to defeat BJP. He added that the party’s sole agenda in the state was to continue to give the people, “progress, and development and to ensure that it has the people’s support.”
The National Science Talent Search Scholar with a post graduate degree in Physics, Prof Roy was among other TMC leaders MP Tapas Paul and MLA Mahua Moitra against whom BJP MP Babul Supriyo had filed a complaint for falsely accusing him of being allegedly involved in the Rose Valley ponzi chit fund scam.
On the contentious National Register of Citizens (NRC), Prof Roy is of the opinion that it will only increase the ‘division’ within the country. According to The Print, he said, “It will lead to largescale clashes across states. The government’s logic to implementing the NRC in the country appears to be tenuous.” In 2019, Prof Roy also questioned why the centre was in a rush to implement the NRC when there is no compulsion of implementing the NRC in other states.
Prof Roy is a veteran politician who had earlier been elected from Barrackpore constituency in 1977. He has held other notable positions such as briefly serving as the Union Minister of State for Petroleum in Charan Singh’s cabinet and the Union Minister of State for Urban Development in the UPA government. Additionally, Prof Roy has also been elected from Alipore, Dhakuria and Bangaon in the state legislative assembly five times.
The Lok Sabha constituency has been a stronghold of Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) for several years with Congress winning in 1984 and BJP winning in 1998 till 2004. TMC won the seat for the first time in 2009, with Prof Roy securing 4.5 lakh votes. Mr. Roy continued to retain the seat in the subsequent Lok Sabha elections with a significant majority.
In the 2019 elections, TMC’s sitting MP once again secured victory with 5.1 lakh votes. The BJP moved to the second position from the first with its candidate Samik Bhattacharya receiving 4.5 lakh votes.
Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency comprises of Vidhan Sabhas including Rajarhat Gopalpur, Panihati, Khardaha, Kamarhati, Dum Dum Uttar and Baranagar, all under the TMC flag. The constituency has 25.82 percent of Muslim voters, 21.7 percent of SC and 2.6 percent voters, as per the 2011 census.