Tathagata Roy

Tathagata Roy (Bengali: তথাগত রায়) is an Indian politician, engineer and author. He was appointed as the Governor of Tripura in May 2015 and for some time in 2016 also held the additional charge of Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, having been both preceded and succeeded by J.P.Rajkhowa. During his stint as Governor of Arunachal Pradesh handled the ouster of Chief Minister Kalikho Pul following a Supreme Court judgement and swore in Pema Khandu as the new Chief Minister. He had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) He was president of the West Bengal state unit of BJP from 2002 till 2006. He was a member of the BJP National Executive, the party's central policy making body from 2002 till May 2015.

Tathagata Roy
Governor of Tripura
Preceded by Padmanabha Acharya
President Bharatiya Janata Party West Bengal
Personal details
Born (1945-09-14) 14 September 1945
Kolkata, West Bengal
Nationality Indian

Life and work

Tathagata Roy was born on 14 September 1945 in Kolkata to Debesh Chandra Roy and Anila (nee Dutta). He had a distinguished academic career, having been a rank holder in the school leaving examination and a Jagadis Bose National Science Talent Search Scholar. He studied Civil Engineering in Bengal Engineering College Sibpur (currently Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur), when it was affiliated with the University of Calcutta. Later he joined Indian Railways Service of Engineers.[1] He worked as General Manager, RITES and as Chief Engineer -Design of Metro Railways, Calcutta.[1] He also holds a Law Degree of Calcutta University.

Roy took voluntary retirement from the Railways in 1990. He then joined Jadavpur University as professor and founder head of the Department of Construction Engineering at its new campus at Salt Lake, Calcutta. He is a former Chairman Board of Governors of TTTI Calcutta (2000 to 2005). He is a fellow of the Institution of Engineers and life member of the Indian Council of Arbitration.. He functioned as an Arbitrator in a number of Engineering Contracts till he became Governor.

Roy was felicitated as an 'Eminent Engineering Personality' by the Institution of Engineers (India) at the Engineering Congress held at Guwahati in December 2015 and awarded the distinguished Alumni award by Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, formerly Bengal Engineering College Sibpur during the Second Annual Convocation of the Institute on 4th March 2016. He was also conferred the degree of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) by the Shri Jagdishprasad Jhabarmull Tibrewala University, Vidyanagari, Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, at a special convocation at Mumbai in May 2016. He was further conferred the degree of Doctor of Engineering (Honoris Causa) by the National Institute of Technology, Agartala, Tripura, at the convocation in November 2016.

Politics

Roy was attracted towards Hindutva and became a Swayamsevak in 1986. After leaving government service he joined the BJP in 1990. He replaced Ashim Ghosh as president of the West Bengal state unit of the BJP in 2002 and was succeeded by Sukumar Banerjee in 2006.

Roy stood as a candidate for election to the Lok Sabha in 2009, standing in the North Kolkata constituency of West Bengal. He did not win. He stood as the BJP candidate in the Kolkata Dakshin (South Kolkata) parliamentary constituency for the Indian general election, 2014, earning 25.29% of the total votes polled.He was selected as the Governor of Tripura on 12th of May 2015.

Publications

Roy writes extensively, mostly socio-political articles, both in English and in his native Bengali. He has been published in The Statesman, BJP Today, Desh (Bengali fortnightly) and several others. He has authored five books:

Family

Roy is the elder brother of Saugata Roy, the All India Trinamool Congress MP and former Minister of State for Urban Development.. He is married, with two married daughters Malini (Rao) and Madhura (Khedekar), both of whom live in the United States. His wife Anuradha taught English at B.K.C.College, Kolkata


References

  1. 1 2 Life-Sketch of Tathagata Roy, President, BJP, West Bengal, BJP Today, January 1--15, 2003 - Vol. 12, No. 01.
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