Kolkata: West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh today said estranged Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy was in touch with the top leadership of his party, but stopped short of saying whether he would join the saffron outfit.   

"He (Roy) is a big leader. I am not aware whether he would join the BJP or not. But he is in touch with our leaders in New Delhi," he said.   The TMC, the ruling party in West Bengal, had yesterday censured Roy for allegedly hobnobbing with BJP leaders, and drawn the line by saying it was keeping a close watch on him.   

When contacted, BJP national general secretary and the party's in-charge of West Bengal, Kailash Vijayvargiya, told PTI, "I cannot comment on it. It is an internal matter of the TMC."   

Roy was not available for a comment.   Once the second-in-command in the TMC after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Roy, a Rajya Sabha MP, currently shares a strained relationship with the party. He was absent from the event to unveil the Durga Puja edition of the TMC mouthpiece, 'Jago Bangla', on September 19.   

The special edition of the party mouthpiece was unveiled by Banerjee and the entire TMC top brass, barring Roy, was present at the event.   Roy was recently removed as the TMC vice-president after the party decided to restructure its committee.   

He was earlier removed as the party's in-charge of Tripura, where the TMC was steadily making inroads till its members switched over to the BJP earlier this year. PTI