Angry at being dropped from a signature forgery case via a late-night text message, veteran Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee on Thursday launched a scathing public attack on party chief Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, asking Mamata to choose between him and her nephew, and even threatening to chart her own political course if the party continues to tolerate the younger leader’s allegedly disrespectful style. Of performance.
The four-term MP from Serampore also announced that he will no longer represent Abhishek Banerjee in court.
“From now on, I will not appear in any legal matter related to Abhishek Banerjee. I don’t like his arrogance. I am his biggest advocate and senior to him in politics. He should understand that the party is facing this ordeal because of him. He cannot continue to disrespect people,” Kalyan Banerjee told HT.
“He destroyed the party,” the senior lawyer said.
Kalyan Banerjee’s anger comes at a time when the TMC is suffering from internal rebellion following its defeat in the recent state assembly elections, with rebel factions emerging in both Parliament and the state assembly.
On Thursday morning, Rajya Sabha MP Prakash Shek Parikh resigned from the Rajya Sabha and the party, the third TMC parliamentarian to resign this week.
In a statement to reporters earlier today, Kalyan criticized Abhishek Banerjee for his alleged arrogance and disrespectful attitude. “The party has been destroyed because of him. I was with the party and Mamata Banerjee during the difficult times. Even today, I am with her. But Mamata Banerjee has to choose between me and him. This is an ultimatum. I leave it to her wisdom. If she says the party cannot continue without Abhishek, then I will have to look for other ways,” Kalyan Banerjee told reporters in Kolkata.
The immediate trigger for the veteran leader’s tongue-lashing was a late-night text message informing him that he had been replaced in a high-profile signature forgery case in the Calcutta High Court.
“At night, I prepared for the case, which was scheduled to be heard today. Around 12:30 pm, my son was informed through a text message that I was not wanted and that lawyer Ayan Bhattacharya would be defending the case. This is very insulting. I have been practicing for 45 years. Bhattacharya is very much a junior. He (Abhishek) doesn’t even know how to respect a senior lawyer,” he said.
Kalyan is one of Mamata’s oldest and most loyal political partners, and stayed put to rebuild the party when a wave of leaders abandoned the TMC after its recent defeat in the state elections.
“Why should I fight the case of someone who doesn’t know how to respect a senior lawyer? Don’t treat me like a trash can. I am not an employee of Camak Street (Abhishek Banerjee’s office is on Camak Road). Why is he so arrogant? He doesn’t respect everyone. I can’t work with him. I am an honest politician. But even then, people shout ‘chor chor’ when they see me. I spoke against him in 2022. I was alone then,” he added.
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh declined to comment.
“I love and respect Abhishek. He is my leader. But Kalyan Banerjee is a veteran leader and a senior politician and I will not make any comments. I faced similar treatment in the party. I was given a task. I completed it successfully. But then suddenly I was replaced by someone else. It would have been better if he had told me about it within the party,” he said.
