The man who refused to visit a rail accident site while he was the minister of state for railways is set to be the railway minister. Meet Mukul Roy, the man Mamata had always wanted for the post she once held.

Mukul Roy was always the man Mamata wanted as railways minister once she moved to Kolkata. He was the minister of state for railways and Mamata had recommended him for the cabinet post she was vacating. But Manmohan Singh was not keen and served as the Cabinet Minister (pro tem) himself keeping Roy as the Minister of State.

Roy was peeved. And it all came to a boil last July. The Kalka mail headed to Delhi derailed at Fatehpur killing 69 people. Then several coaches of the Guwahati-Puri train exploded after militants planted an IED device on the tracks in lower Assam and over 100 people were injured. Mukul Roy was missing in action. When the PM asked him to visit the site of the Guwahati-Puri train derailment, he openly defied him. He stayed put in Kolkata, saying “There is no need for me to go to the accident site now. I am not the railways minister. The prime minister is. I am only one of three Ministers of State.”

In the July cabinet reshuffle Roy lost his position and was left with just the Shipping portfolio.

At that time DNA reported that Roy already knew that he’d been pipped to the Cabinet post by his colleague Dinesh Trivedi and there was no love lost between the two. Although Roy had played a huge role in Trinamool’s election victory in Bengal, Trivedi had also put in a lot of hard work and Didi wanted to reward him with a ministry.

Revenge is sweet. It looks like he will get his Railways ministry after Dinesh Trivedi’s harakiri via rail budget.

But who is Mukul Roy?

He is a general secretary of the Trinamnool Congress. He was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2006. He’s minister of state in the Ministry of Shipping. He’s also been a non-executive director as a social worker for the United Bank of India.

But his biggest qualification for the job – he is Didi’s “trusted man.”

“Mukul, being at Didi’s beck and call, does not do anything without her consent,” a party MP told The Telegraph. At a railways event in Howrah in February, Dinesh Trivedi talked about rail safety and the state’s Metro projects. Roy talked about how Mamata had changed the face of railways and West Bengal and ended his speech with a rousing “Mamata Banerjee zindabad.”

Her trust in the man is clear. He was sent to represent her at the Prakash Singh Badal swearing in ceremony while a low-key first time Trinamool MP was dispatched to the UPA allies dinner hosted by the PM. He was sent to Manipur to oversee the election of TMC legislature leader after the party’s electoral triumphs there.

The contrast between Roy and the man he is about to replace could not be clearer. While Trivedi is a suave debater, who has worked in the US, and has an MBA and hails from the tony Ballygunge Circular Road area of South Calcutta, Roy grew up in the district town of Kanchrapara, in North 24 Parganas. His educational qualifications are listed as Higher Secondary, B.Sc (Part 1). His past times include watching Mohun Bagan football matches and one day cricket. His social activities include Bharat Scouts and Guides as well as providing freed education for the poor.

A low-profile man, he’s credited as pretty much the second-in-command in Trinamool, the man who helped build the party from scratch even when it floundered in the polls in 2001 and 2006. His son Subhrangshu is a member of the West Bengal Assembly from Bijpur constituency and had to spend a night in jail charged with attacking Election Commission officials in April. After hiding out for five days, he was arrested from a Mamata Banerjee rally when she made it clear the law had to take its course.

Party insiders told the media Dinesh Trivedi had long sensed that he did not have much of a future in the party. Perhaps that was why he trotted out that hoary Tagore poem in his budget speech – “where the mind is without fear and the head is held high.” We will have to see what Tagore poem is going to be apt for Mukul Roy as he faces the task of rolling back his own colleague’s budget.