Tathagata Roy


Tathagata Roy is an Indian politician who serves as the Governor of Meghalaya since August 2018. He had also previously served as the Governor of Tripura, following a political career with the Bharatiya Janata Party, which included a stint as the president of its West Bengal state unit. He was then a member of the BJP National Executive, the party's central policy-making body, from 2002 until 2015.
Roy briefly had additional charge of the office of the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh from July 2016 till August 2016, during which he handled the ouster of Chief Minister Kalikho Pul following a Supreme Court judgement, and swore in Pema Khandu as the new Chief Minister. An engineer by training, Roy is a former professor of construction engineering and the founder-head of the department at Jadavpur University.

Life and works

Tathagata Roy was born on 14 September 1945 in Calcutta, British India to Debesh Chandra Roy and Anila. 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, when it was affiliated with the University of Calcutta. Later he joined Indian Railways Service of Engineers. He worked as General Manager, RITES and as Chief Engineer - Design of Metro Railways, Calcutta. 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. 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 until he was appointed Governor of Tripura.
Roy was felicitated as an 'Eminent Engineering Personality' by the Institution of Engineers 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 4 March 2016. He was also conferred the degree of Doctor of Letters 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 by the National Institute of Technology, Agartala, Tripura, at the convocation in November 2016.

Politics

Roy was attracted towards Hindutva, the ideology of Hindu nationalism and joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh 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 parliamentary constituency for the 2014 Indian general election, earning 25.29% of the total votes polled. He was appointed Governor of Tripura on 12 May 2015. He was transferred and appointed Governor of Meghalaya in August 2018.. He served till December 2019 and again from January 2020.

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 and several others. He has authored seven books:
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 and Madhura, both of whom live in the United States. His wife Anuradha taught English at B.K.C. College, Kolkata.