During Tuesday’s Cabinet rejig, his fellow party leader Dinesh Trivedi was made Cabinet Minister for Railways. While Roy, who himself ruined the chances of being promoted to Cabinet rank with his callousness, is now back to managing Shipping Ministry as junior minister.
Roy had defied the prime minister’s call to visit the train accident site at Kamrup in Assam on the ground that he was not yet made a Cabinet minister.
Informed sources said Roy’s disobedience to the prime minister accelerated his unceremonious departure from the railway ministry as he preferred to accompany his leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to visiting the accident site.
Meanwhile, Dinesh Trivedi, who has long been lobbying for a Cabinet rank, has shown his loyalty to Banerjee and declared that he will implement her vision about railways. Making rail safety his top priority, the minister told reporters: “ I will implement Banerjee’s Vision 2020. I have read it thoroughly before taking charge. Immediately after taking oath as Railway minister, Trivedi left for Fatehpur on a special flight. He also announced a job each to the next of kin of the deceased in the Kalka Mail accident.
According to sources, Roy’s lacklustre performance at a meeting of Railway officials a month ago perhaps would have made the prime minister think of a new person to head the ministry. The prime minister had reportedly conveyed his impression to Banerjee after Roy failed to elaborate his vision of improvement in Railways and asked to rethink her decision of making him her successor in the ministry.
Roy was given almost all responsibilities which Mamata had as a Cabinet minister. He had just to get his decisions endorsed by the prime minister who kept the portfolio with him after Mamata quit the post.